Anyone who has searched for an authentic family recipe as a way to reclaim one’s history will appreciate Laura Schenone’s revealing novel that is part memoir and part culinary delight.
The award-winning author Schenone will read from her latest work, “The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family” (W.W. Norton) at the Weehawken Public Library event on Thursday, June 12. The book weaves together a tapestry of tradition and family history, with gastronomy as the common thread. It is a quintessentially American story about reclaiming traditions lost through distance and time.
“I am a writer first,” said Schenone, which is evident from her well-spun narrative, “but food has opened the doorway to other things.”
Evidence of this is her laboriously researched ravioli recipe, which traveled from Liguria in Northern Italy through Ellis Island via her great-grandmother. She decides to search for the elusive recipe, which leads her to contact distant family members, but deems that only traveling through the ancestral homeland will due.
The search takes her through Genovese countryside with its verdant hillsides rising from sleepy seaside villages. Here are the origins of much of the luxuriant Italian food we enjoy today thanks to centuries of immigrants.
A search for authenticity
From the many Italian roots in the New York area, large branches have spread that testify to a strong identification with traditions and customs of the old country.
The book complements a search for ethereal tradition with memoirs from the reality of life in New Jersey over recent decades. Schenone interweaves her epic quest for ‘authentic’ ravioli with heartfelt stories about her family.
“Telling stories around food goes naturally,” Schenone relates, in this case the confluence of food and family proves stimulating.
One part culinary epic, one part family history, the two complement each other nicely. One feels as if they’re hearing a story about old relatives over a home-cooked feast.
For Schenone, as for many Italians, that feast centers around the ravioli, which is the traditional fare around Christmas and other celebrations.
The fascinating epic is the search for authenticity, and the author’s many stops at Genovese artisanal shops and old homes fascinate the reader with even minimal culinary aptitude. Schenone at once paints a picture of current rustic Italian artistry while wistfully imagining the lives of her forebears. From Liguria, they settled in Hoboken, which to this day remains a conflicted town.
In the book, Schenone comments on Hoboken’s “misplaced pride” as a result of city’s welcome sign at the edge of town, which reads “birthplace of baseball and Frank Sinatra.”
She suggests “a more honest sign might say Welcome to Hoboken: Mile-Square City Where Millions of Immigrants Built American Industry.” Anyone versed in Hoboken’s history would tend to agree.
Capturing the past
Hoboken is the genesis for Schenone’s delightful family narrative, with which the reader can easily identify. She has captured the zeitgeist of northern New Jersey in much the same way as Doris Kearns Goodwin did for Long Island.
New currents have partially washed away much of the old Hoboken.
“For me there is no going back” she writes, but this is not a condemnation, more acknowledging the greater force of history and change.
“Continuity of history is not available,” she says.
Many old Hobokenites talk about the way the town once was, full of grit, and ‘old sins’ between the walls of the buildings, as Schenone relates. The place is different now, but one sees the evidence all around of the old layers of Hoboken, and Schenone gives us a vivid picture of some of those layers.
There is a spiritual element to these stories as well. Family functions as religion for Schenone and time applies the same pressure to the family as to places. At times her family becomes slightly disjointed; another identifiable element of the narrative, but there is the same permanence as applied to place.
The reader delights in seeing the epic quest, as well as the personal narrative come to fruition. She also includes traditional recipes gained from her travels and travails to satisfy the palette.
Upcoming readings, demo
Schenone’s acclaimed prior work also centered on culinary topics, “A Thousand Years Over a Hot Stove: A History of American Women Told Through Food, Recipes, and Remembrances” (W.W. Norton).
She has also been working on her website and blog www.jellypress.com, which is about fun with “old recipes, art, and ideas.”
Schenone also writes articles as a freelance journalist and was finishing a story about honey in New Jersey, due out soon in New Jersey Monthly Magazine.
In addition to her appearance at the Weehawken Library event on June 12, Schenone will appear at an event in Madison Square Park on July 17. The event is part of the Mad. Sq. Reads 2008 program, dedicated to aspects of New York life and history.
She is in the process of scheduling a cooking demonstration accompanied by a book discussion at the Whole Foods Market-Bowery Culinary Center, in which guests will have the opportunity to watch Schenone demonstrate her ravioli technique.
For updates and additional information, check Schenone’s website at www.lostravioli.com.
Laura Schenone will read from her book “The Lost Ravioli Recipes of Hoboken: A Search for Food and Family” at the Weehawken Public Library event, which will be held at the Senior Activity Center, 201 Highwood Avenue, on Thursday, June 12 at 7 p.m. For more information, call (201) 863-7823.
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