Just like grandma made
Sharon Stephenson talks to chef Felice Mannucci about his love of food, particularly his Italian grandmother’s mussels.
‘‘You couldn’t buy olive oil, pasta or Italian cheese. I had to go home for a holiday after two years, just so I could eat decent food.’’ Felice Mannucci
It was love that lured Felice Mannucci from his home in Viareggio, Tuscany, to Christchurch.
After marrying Kiwi Paulette, whom he met while she was holidaying in Italy, they moved to her home town in the mid-1970s.
It was, recalls the now 70-year-old Mannucci, ‘‘as far from Italy as it was possible to get’’.
‘‘You couldn’t buy olive oil, pasta or Italian cheese. I had to go home for a holiday after two years, just so I could eat decent food.’’
What do you do when you can’t find the food you crave?
You open your own restaurant, sourcing and making ingredients such as fresh pasta and prosciutto.
‘‘When we tried to get a loan to buy a pasta machine, the bank manager didn’t even know what pasta was.’’
But the couple, who’ve been married for 46 years, persevered, and have since owned four Italian eateries, including Il Felice for 11 years, Tutte Bene for 10, and their latest in Ferrymead, Casa Nostra, for the past four years.
Being surrounded by so much authentic Italian food, it’s hard to imagine Mannucci missing anything from home.
‘‘What I do miss is pasta e cozze made by my grandmother.
‘‘It’s easy to make, just fresh pasta, mussels and beans, which I’ve made in my restaurants many times for customers who’ve loved it.
‘‘But it’s never the same as the first time I tasted it when I was 10 or 11, staying at my grandmother’s house next to the sea.
‘‘I swam out to get the mussels and she created this magic in a pot with sage from the garden.
‘‘Even now, I can shut my eyes and imagine myself back there, eating the simplest but freshest meal possible.’’