Christmas Remembered: Tomie dePaola

By JULIETTE ROSSANT These days, it's never too early to write about Christmas, and what better way to start seasonal thoughts than with Tomie dePaola? If you have ever read to a small child, or if you are in touch with your inner child, chances are you've read one of Tomie's 200 or so children's books. Many of them often feature food. His wonderful tale of an Italian witch, Strega Nona, is all about the trouble her assistant, Big Anthony, gets into when he uses her magic pasta pot without permission. Another, Pascual and the Kitchen Angels, narrates an angel takeover of a kitchen to bail out the young, inexperienced San Pascual, who is supposed to be cooking meal for monks. Guess Who is Coming to Santa's for Dinner?, is based on a Christmas party that Tomie had for his own family: I decided when I moved to this house over a decade ago that I would have my sister and her kids over along with friends for a huge Christmas dinner. It was a disaster, of course. The plum pudding that had too much liquor exploded, and I had flames on my arm! Sure enough, in the book Santa decides to invite his whole dysfunctional family over for dinner, and the dessert explodes. (Duff Goldman: somewhere in your youth or childhood, did you ever read Tomie dePaola?) From what Tomie told Superchefblog, his early childhood memories of food resemble those many chefs: I have an Irish grandma, and for birthdays for the Irish, you could do whatever you wanted. I wanted to cook my own dinner. I was five. They put a chair backwards against the stove, and my parents stood on either side of me. I don't know if my father had a fire extinguisher… I had a six-inch frying pan, I made a pop eye – you fry an egg with fried bread that you've cut a hole out of, and then put the bread hole on top of the egg poking through [sometimes called a "bunny in the hole"]. I still have that frying pan. His newest book, Christmas Remembered (G. P. Putnam 2006) is a treasury of stories about Christmases in his life, illustrated with collages. This is a gift for families – there are no sad stories, no dysfunctional family members, but there are marvelous, tender personal stories of why Christmas is a joyous time no matter where you are or who you are with. One of his favorite stories in the book is about spending a Christmas in New York City that ended with a meal at the Plaza Hotel: Finally a brigade of servers arrived with trays filled with fancy desserts. The waiter himself took the little girl's special dessert, placed it in front of her and stepped back. It was a pink and white fruit-ice Santa Claus standing amongst globes of strawberry and vanilla ice cream. She started at it. Everyone looked lovingly at her. The older woman said, "Isn't that lovely, dear? A Santa Popsicle!" The Little Girl picked up the Santa and promptly bit off his head. The rest of the table froze in absolute silence. "Oh, well," I said to Bob. "This is the Plaza, after all. 'Eloise' is alive and well." (p. 75) One chapter is about Tomie's part time job in high-school at the local candy shop, and how he helped make mint candy canes, including one over five feet long. ("A Candy Cane Christmas" pp. 19-25) Another Christmas in San Francisco, Tomie decided to have an after-Christmas party and filled his small apartment with over 80 small Christmas trees that he bargained for from some paesani who had trees left over after Christmas. (The model for Strega Nona, Tomie confided to Superchefblog, is none other than his own Italian grandmother, Nana Fall-River, named after the town where she lived. You can see his handsome portrait of a contented grandmother, wine glass raised, toasting the riches of Christmas. -- Just wait for Cucina Strega Nona!) Book details: Publisher Amazon.com Barnes & Noble Previous articles: [Cookbook Reviews - complete] Technorati Tags: superchefblog, Juliette Rossant, super chef, celebrities, chefs, food, restaurants, cooking, branding, cuisine, blogging, food blogging, cookbooks, cookbook reviews --> back to superchefblog