L’Artist restaurant
Ihave passed by L’Artist at Tigné Street, several times and have promised myself to try it out one of these days. It looks ‘interesting’ – and has an air of mystery about it. Although I have to say that if truth be told I consider most restaurants over rated and over priced and eat out only if I cannot avoid it, now that the girls are no longer home.
The love of food is infectious, like plague or typhus but fortunately does not have the same devastating effects than those ancient enemies of Mankind, the destroyers of civilizations and armies alike. Food, however, is a liaison dangereuse and, as the Health Promotion Unit keeps on reminding us, we need to control it. But how very difficult that is.
My children and their spouses and their children, though still very young, are no better than me at keeping away from food.
As I was Skyping my young one in New York, at some absurd hour of the early morning, for me, their little Theo was eating his first solids: a pea and milk concoction, the same colour as his plastic bib and spoon. As soon as his mother withdrew her attention to give some to me, before I started snoring on the keyboard, he would have none of it and was waving his little legs to attract her gaze and making a croaking noise with his throat. All this stopped as soon as he was given, at breakneck speed, spoonful upon spoonful of this nasty looking pea and milk mess.
That excellent maxim, ‘Children should be seen and not heard’, has been reversed nowadays. They are not merely allowed to be present at all occasions, but to dominate the scene. If one of them has anything to say we have to stop some serious conversation to hear some banal comment or another, in case our not giving them a chance to express themselves will cause them psychological damage later on.
I do not begrudge the young some good things such as pretty clothes. I look at my grand daughter’s wardrobe and it almost rivals mine, but she is only two-years-old and doesn’t go to receptions and concerts. I have to admit that I too very occasionally, also contribute to this delicious collection because today’s children’s clothes are simply so irresistible. I remember purchasing smocked dresses for my daughters in Mauritius. The Muslim ladies made beautiful ones. Years later my young one told me, one evening, how she hated wearing them, with her black patent bottoned shoes and white socks as no one else was wearing them in Malta. On mass on Sundays at St Patrick’s she would hide behind one of the columns for fear that one of her school friends would spot her in a smoked pink dress!
For today’s children reading and many other kinds of learning are made fun. Their treats are Babylonian and never-ending. Harry’s favourite are the mechanical dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum in London. At least they were until last summer. Goodness knows what it will be next. One has to marvel at the amount of expertise and cash which now goes into amusing our youngsters.
If my generation achieved so much with so little I am expecting a great deal from them. Unfortunately, it is highly unlikely that I shall be around to see the results – or indeed, the disappointments.
But back to L’Artist. An invitation to go and dine there from Maryann Kissaun was most welcomed particularly as I enjoy her company; her directness, her intelligence. The evening was made even more pleasurable with the presence of Maestro Michael Laus and his wife, the soprano Miriam Gauci; Lawrence Grech and his Lillian and Malcolm Naudi and his wife Cecilia. Maryann had been there before and although not a huge eater herself assured me the food was excellent. She has travelled all round the world giving concerts and knows all about good food and drink.
She comes from a family of professional musicians. Her mother was Italian and her life has been immersed in music since an early age and for some 50 years later. ‘I vividly remember the constant air raids, long hours in shelters hewn from solid rock; people rushing there, day or night, at the sound of a siren.” In fact the Kissaun home in Floriana had been bombed. In spite of all this practicing the piano daily, with her sister Nadya, also a pianist, was never neglected. She recalls walking all the way from their temporary home in Floriana to Sliema, fortnightly, to Miss Bascetta, for piano lessons. “And also,” she adds, “the daily walk to school which was in Lija.”
Maryann’s mother Syra, an accomplished pianist herself, instilled in both her daughters not only a great deal of love for all music but also the importance of perseverence and discipline. If they were listening to some great musician such as Rubenstein she would turn to Maryann and say: ‘Così si suona!’ which inspired her daughters to do better but at the same time made them wonder if they would ever attain such heights.
Maryann is not only gifted musically but linguistically as well, speaking four languages fluently.
She has not only travelled the world with her music but also taught in London for some 25 years, teaching at the London College of Music and deputized for professors at the Royal Academy of Music while pursuing her concert career.
Her father was the first manager of the Manoel Theatre, a role he played with distinction between 1960 and 1972. To quote Paul Xuereb’s, The
Manoel Theatre, a short history:
“Throughout the early years of the Manoel’s post-1960 history, the suave figure of Kissaun, always in dinner jacket at theatre performances, was almost symbolical of the old Manoel’s new role.”
Let me hasten to assure you that the food at L’Artist was excellent. Three of us had rabbit as a main course. We were warned it was going to be spicy as indeed it was but a wonderful alternative to the way we normally cook it here. I had the privilege of sitting opposite pianist/conductor Michael Laus and next to my first editor: Lawrence Grech. Most of the talk was about music and they both know so much about it. Lawrence must be the most cultivated editor Malta has ever had. I remember, all those years ago, going to him in the old Malta Times premises at St Paul’s street, with my articles. Two were definite scoops: one was an interview with Danilo Dolci in Sicily and the other another interview with the author of A Clockwork Orange and other best sellers, Anthony Burgess, who at the time lived with his Italian wife and their son in Lija.
Both these music lovers are such good company and have so much to say, but are so humble about it all.
Miriam is always a lively and interesting companion, even if you only meet her for a few minutes outside a concert. Each guest contributed to a most pleasant evening. As to the head chef, Steve Schembri and the manager Gino Micallef and his companion Rita, they looked after us so beautifully. If you feel like a meal cooked and served with ‘love’ do try L’Artist. It very much lived up to my expectations and Maryann did well to host her friends there.