Jeff Houck

The Tampa Tribune’s food writer since 2005, Jeff Houck covers the way people live through their food. He also hosts the Table Conversations food podcast and believes that everything crunchy is good.

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Mother and Son

Posted May 9, 2007 by Jeff Houck

Updated May 9, 2007 at 10:29 AM

I had the good fortune to interview the doyenne of Italian-American cooking Marcella Hazan at her home in Longboat Key last week. You can read the story here and here.

We had a chat as part of my story on her son Giuliano, who recently won an IACP award as cooking teacher of the year.

My idea was to do a package for Mother’s Day about a mother’s influence on her child through use of the kitchen - without using the word Mother’s Day in the story. (I am loathe to do the usual food holiday story. Although, you know, you have to genuflect to the high holy food days of Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Fourth of July and Memorial Day.)

Anyway, we had a lovely chat. I was surprised to hear that she had only attended one of his classes. (She didn’t want to draw attention away from her son’s classes.)

The two of them - Giuliano chimes in at times in the interview - could not have been more gracious.

I have to say that I fell in love with her kitchen.

Everything in the kitchen was custom-made. The glass hood over the stove is brilliant. Really keeps a small space from feeling claustrophobic.

Olive oil and salt were at the ready. So were the two food processors and espresso machine.

She even had a built-in set of shelves for her most essential books. Which, of course, include…

Her son’s books, prominent and conveniently at hand.

You can listen to the interview here: