Collection consists of 26 handwritten recipe notebooks of Marcella Hazan, chef and author of Italian cooking.
Content Description:
Collection consists of 26 handwritten recipe notebooks of Marcella Hazan, chef and author of Italian cooking. Also includes one letter to Marcella Hazan from Julia Child, July 31, 1973. The recipe notebooks are in Italian.
Marcella's life in food was shaped by the fresh ingredients and simplified, efficient approaches to cooking and eating typical in the fishing village of Cesenatico, Italy, where she was born in 1924 and spent her early years. An accident at age 7 when her family was visiting Alexandria, Egypt, left her with limited use of her right arm for the rest of her life, a fact that would influence the design and use of her kitchens, but not her impact in the culinary world. During World War II, her family retreated to an inland farmhouse to escape the German occupation. They survived despite Facist takeovers of neighboring villages. Their return to Cesenatico in 1945 was also a return to the familiar foodscape of the sea and garden plants that had also survived the war. Marcella earned two doctorates in the sciences and became an elementary school teacher. She met Victor Hazan, who had left Italy with his family, Sephardic Jews, in 1939, ahead of the occupation. They moved to New York and established businesses there.
After marrying in 1955, Victor and Marcella returned to New York where Marcella struggled with learning English and finding appropriate ingredients to prepare meals from her Italian homeland. She enrolled in a Chinese cooking class and when the instructor abruptly left for China, the other students convinced Marcella to teach them Italian cooking. She opened a small cooking school in her home apartment in 1969 and attracted the praise and attention of New York Times food editor Craig Claiborne in the 1970s. Hazan published her first cookbook, The Classic Italian Cookbook, in 1973. From this surprising beginning, Marcella became a much-sought-after cooking teacher and cookbook author, active in the United States, United Kingdom, and Italy.
Hazan's cookbooks introduced American and British readers to the structure of the traditional Italian meal and to ingredients, dishes, and techniques largely unknown outside of Italy, such as balsamic vinegar, pesto, and the procedures for making fresh pasta. Unlike other chefs and authors of her day, Hazan rejected many high-tech shortcuts for chopping and mixing, insisting on manual techniques and stovetop cooking that demanded the cook's constant attention. In 1998, Marcella and Victor moved from Italy to Longboat Key, Florida, due to Marcella's declining health. She designed the kitchen in their Florida condominium to suit her cooking practices and tastes and continued to cook and write from her Florida home. Hazan died in Longboat Key, Florida, in 2013. She was the recipient of numerous awards, including the International Association of Culinary Professionals Lifetime Achievement Award (2004); Cavaliere della Stella della Solidarietà Italiana Award (2003); James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (2000); and others.
Victor and Marcella had one son, Giuliano Hazan (b.1958). Marcella Hazan died on September 29, 2013.
Provenance:
Collection donated by Victor Hazan and Giuliano Hazan, December 6, 2023.
Restrictions:
Collection is open for research.
Rights:
Collection items available for reproduction, but the Archives Center makes no guarantees concerning copyright restrictions. Other intellectual property rights may apply. Archives Center cost-recovery and use fees may apply when requesting reproductions.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Nell Blaine, 1967 June 15. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
Quotes and excerpts must be cited as follows: Oral history interview with Joan Ankrum, 1964 April 28. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.
An interview of Nell Blaine conducted 1967 June 15, by Dorothy Seckler, for the Archives of American Art.
Blaine speaks of her family background; her competitive spirit; commercial art; becoming a "disciple" of Hans Hofmann; Hofmann as a teacher; the influence of Arp, Helion, Leger and Mondrian; the American Abstract Artists group; the Jane Street Gallery; jazz musicians; painting in Paris, Italy, Mexico, Greece, England, and elsewhere; her paralysis caused by polio; design work with Alvin H. Ross; her interest in color and light; landscape and figurative paintings; and the contemporary art scene. She recalls Leland Bell, Worden Day, Jane and Jack Freilicher, Wolf Kahn, Albert Kresch, Larry Rivers, Hyde Solomon, and others.
Biographical / Historical:
Nell Blaine (1922-1996) was a painter in New York, New York.
General:
Originally recorded 2 sound tape reels. Reformatted in 2010 as 6 digital wav files. Duration is 2 hr.
Provenance:
This interview is part of the Archives' Oral History Program, started in 1958 to document the history of the visual arts in the United States, primarily through interviews with artists, historians, dealers, critics and others.
Restrictions:
This interview is open for research. Contact Reference Services for more information.
Occupation:
Printmakers -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Painters -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
Illustrators -- New York (State) -- New York Search this
