Lottie Lomme
Antoinette Coops, known from the blog Italian cooking with Antoinette, released her first cookbook in April titled Mangiamo! with dishes from the Veneto region. In 2001 she moved from Utrecht to Verona in Italy with an Italian whom she met in the Netherlands. Their sons are called Victor and Fabio. She works for a Dutch company in an office in Verona. At the beginning of June she won the Golden apple, the price for it best italian cookbook that appeared in the Netherlands in the past 15 years. Time for an interview!
New post, Mangiamo! best italian cookbook overall @italieevent Taste and Style of the past 15 years https://t.co/lr4UKHBui5@cookbookvhjaar pic.twitter.com/sTIT46t3J6
— Cooking with Antoinette (@Italiakokenblog) June 5, 2018
Who is your favorite Italian cook? Why?
"Massimo Bottura. What he makes is refined but without exaggeration. And then the names he gives his dishes, for example: 'Potato that dreams of becoming a truffle' or 'Too bad, I dropped the cake'. His project Food for Soul I think fantastic. Food that would otherwise be thrown away is still used by the chefs of Food for Soul and transformed into delicious food. In a beautiful mensa, people with little money and few social contacts can sit down. This way the knife cuts both ways. Chefs can be so much more than just their tasty and beautiful dishes!”
What cooking illusions are you poorer after 17 years in Italy?
“The illusion that all Italians love to cook! Here in Italy, too, people are compromising with their time and making their own food is not always the priority. Mum often behaves exactly like an average mother from countries with less famous culinary traditions, she buys ready-made, even frozen pizza is added to the shopping cart.”
How strict or complicated are the rules in your kitchen?
“At home I usually cook without rules or recipes. I like to inspect the fridge and pantry and then get to work. But when I test regional dishes for a book or a blog, you have to make choices. Then I work very tightly, because the end result has to be as authentic and clear as possible. If I deviate from the rules, I will report it.”
Where do you like to buy kitchen utensils or crockery in Italy?
“You don't really need a lot in the kitchen, I don't have a lot of kitchen utensils. Close to the Arena in Verona there is a very nice shop that I should not visit too often… I like to buy second-hand tableware.”
Do you ever watch Italian cooking shows? Can you tell us something about that?
“I've been looking for years not to miss it MasterChef Italy. The level of the candidates is high. I'm sorry you can't smell and taste it, but you always learn something from it. I think it's a fantastic program The Gustibus, by John Dickie. It's about the history of Italian cuisine, well summarized in a few episodes, highly recommended!”
It strikes me that there are many unknown Italian recipes on your website. Are these recipes in Veneto known to a wide audience?
“The Italian dishes that are known in the Netherlands often come from Lazio, Tuscany of Sicily. But in other regions there is also good food! I kind of feel the urge to propagate that and I actually like to publish recipes that haven't already been published a thousand times on the internet. The recipes from Veneto used in Mangiamo! are well known here, but I doubt whether a 90-year-old nonna from Verona knows the recipes from Belluno.”
You once told me that buying fresh pasta is just as nice as making it yourself.
“Argh! New! Help! I once said on Twitter that I prefer tortellini at the pasta factory buy, because it is quite a lot of work to tie it yourself. Is that what you mean? I'm just so happy on my homemade mezzanine and ravioli. Don't take away from me making fresh pasta, it's really better for everyone, haha! Making pasta is really my therapy! And making tagliatelle yourself is a piece of cake with my motorized pasta machine.
Do you ever pick a chicken yourself, do you have a vegetable garden or do you canning vegetables?
“I've never plucked a chicken, but every year I skin a pheasant that a hunter gives me. I love my gardener, mixed sweet and sour vegetables for the appetizer. And every year I make bottles full of strained tomatoes. That's really nicer than the past from the store. My recipe for gardener is in Mangiamo! Unfortunately I don't have the patience for a vegetable garden. I can't get past some fresh herbs from my own garden."
If you cook anything other than Italian, what cuisine is it?
“Then it's Mediterranean cuisine – French, Spanish or Lebanese – and of course Dutch too!”
Try Antoinette's recipes for yourself with this award-winning cookbook:
Mangiamo!
The most delicious regional dishes and other delicacies from the Italian Veneto
by: Antoinette Coops
256 pages
€ 27,99
New Amsterdam, April 2018
ISBN 9789046823606
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