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IT’S not
all that difficult to be convinced that at the time of
creation, God must have regarded with great fondness
that little peninsula south of the continent now known
as Europe. After all, growing up on the cinema of
Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini and Roberto
Rossellini, not to forget the operas of Verdi and
Puccini (and never mind if I understood not a whit of
what was being sung; the soaring power of the arias was
enough to make me a fan), Italy to me seemed pretty much
to have been made the default repository of all that was
good, gorgeous and glorious in the world.
Popular
culture, circa the 21st century, has done little to
diminish that notion, what with Giuseppe Tornatorre,
Monica Bellucci, Marco Leonardi, Raoul Bova and Under
the Tuscan Sun, among recent Italian and
Italian-flavored entries into the pop culture landscape,
keeping the flame of all things Italia alive and burning
brightly.
And, of
course, there is David Rocco, who may be listed in
Wikipedia as “a Canadian actor and producer,” but who is
decidedly Italian in passion, persuasion and utter
gorgeousness. He is also the producer and host of David
Rocco’s Dolce Vita, which is seen around these
parts and elsewhere on that wonderful cable TV channel
Discovery Travel & Living, and is a guide to not only
sumptuous and authentic Italian cuisine (no fusion stuff
here, please) but all that is good and sweet about
vivere Italiano.
The new
season of David Rocco’s Dolce Vita will be
premiering this August on Discovery Travel & Living. For
schedules, visit http://www.travelandlivingasia.com.
You have
famously said, “I’m not a chef; I’m Italian.” Are
Italian men genetically predisposed to being wonders in
the kitchen even sans formal culinary training?
For me,
it is about being brought up in an environment with
Italian food that I almost learned through osmosis. As a
result, I say I’m not a chef; I’m Italian. So because
I’m Italian, I enjoy food and it almost seems to be part
of my DNA that I know how to cook.
What do
you tell fans who readily assume that you’re a chef on
account of your phenomenally successful show?
It’s
funny because I don’t really consider myself a chef. In
fact, during the start of the series, I wrote in our
little web site opening, “I’m not a chef. I’m Italian.”
That was really inspiring to a lot of people in that I
feel very comfortable. I enjoy cooking. I’m good, and
the recipes come out very well. It’s all about not
really having to be an expert chef to make great Italian
meals.
So you
got your passion for food from your Italian heritage.
Tell us how growing up was like.
I seem
to always remember a fondness for cooking and being in
the kitchen. I remember making simple tomato sauce with
eggs. I was probably about six or seven and I recall
just getting my mom’s tomato sauce and just heating it
up, and then just dropping eggs right inside with a
little bit of mozzarella cheese. It would be essentially
poaching the egg, and that would be a Saturday afternoon
meal that I would prepare for myself.
I think
when you start cooking at a young age, you build
confidence. I was always encouraged to try new recipes,
and I was never threatened or concerned whether I was
cooking properly because I saw it through my mom and my
grandmother. So I have a lot of early memories of
cooking.
Cooking
has been part of my life. Someone asked me a few days
ago, “What was the first recipe you ever did?” I don’t
remember, truthfully, because I think when you’re
involved and when you grow up in an Italian household,
or in a household where people love to eat and cook,
it’s almost like, “When was your first step?” It was
always part of my life. I’ve always enjoyed cooking.
Like what I’ve said, I feel like cooking is part of my
DNA. It’s part of my upbringing and I was always
surrounded by food.
When I
have time and when I’m able to, I do probably most of
the cooking. I enjoy it. In fact, to me, it’s a real
form of relaxation. I feel creative. And I feel very
happy actually in the kitchen. If I’m ever stuck in
traffic, and I come home all tired, the first thing I do
to get rid of my headache is just go into the kitchen
and cook, so that really makes me happy.
In
Wikipedia, you are listed as an actor and producer. What
would be the most memorable role you’ve played as an
actor? Also, do you think that having become a
world-famous host of a travel/culinary show forever
ruined a career in acting for you? Do you miss it?
I think
there was a time when television and film did not
coexist. If you were a film actor, you did not do TV.
But with quality shows on TV like The Sopranos
and 24, many film actors are crossing over. In
today’s celebrity culture, it seems that musicians are
actors, models are singers, and chefs can be
celebrities. And if you have name recognition, producers
are more inclined to offer you roles. Look at Paris
Hilton, she is famous for being famous. That said, if
you do a lousy job, there’s a good chance you might not
work as an actor again. I think my exposure and
recognition from the TV series has provided an
opportunity to be well-known, which has opened many
doors. So really, my TV career has only helped with
acting opportunities. In terms of my most memorable
acting role…I really haven’t done much except for
commercials and a few one-liners here and there in some
feature films. In fact, my first commercial was with
Neve Campbell in Toronto.
Are you
surprised that you’re into your third season and the
show has become quite the multicontinent success story?
Yes. I
think our philosophy is that part of what we do is out
of passion. We love our job. I love kind of presenting
Italy and simple recipes and having friends and family
on the show. I think you hope that it will actually be
successful, but I don’t think we started out thinking,
“Let’s do it because it’s going to be big.” I think we
generally did it because we love Italian food and we
wanted to do something that was a little different.
Now, you
even have a soundtrack out that not a few Filipinos
would like to purchase a copy of. It’s becoming a bit of
a miniempire, don’t you think? How did the idea of a
soundtrack come about?
I love
music. In fact, just now it’s probably at the top of our
list in terms of what we’ve been working on. Music is
something I feel very passionate about. As a result, we
try and make the music in the show really exciting and
different and fun. We’ve given opportunities to a lot of
independent artists to be part of the show and use our
show as a platform. So I think that passion comes
through the show.
In fact,
on the CD of this series, I actually wrote, “I’m not a
musician, but I know good music.” To me, music has
always been so important. We kind of set out with having
music that would be unconventional, that wouldn’t be
kind of your typical cooking show music, and that would
be fun. It would be an opportunity to kind of highlight
interesting artists, Italian musicians, Portuguese
musicians.
So
really when we started developing the series, that was
really kind of a mission statement, to have music that
would be amazing and that people would watch it and just
be totally swept away. The music makes the pictures
better and the video makes the music better. It’s all
part of the package. I’ve actually been very active in
the music for the show. I picked the music and a lot of
the artists are friends of ours. I’m very active in
actually that end of the editing.
What do
you think accounts for the success of “David Rocco’s
Dolce Vita”?
I think
it’s finding your own dolce vita with our show. It’s
about daily rituals of going to the market, having your
espresso and, of course, the simple recipes.
There
are, of course, several lifestyle shows not unlike
yours. What makes it different from the rest? What is
its secret sauce—apart from the fact that its host is
utterly gorgeous?
I think
our show is unique in that it brings a little bit of
story, recipes, Italian lifestyle all in one. So you
talk to 10 people and you’ll have 10 different takes on
the show. Is it a cooking show, a travel show, a
sitcom? So there’s, I think, a lighthearted approach to
our cooking and so it’s really something that we enjoy
doing.
We don’t
try to stand out. The other lifestyle shows are
wonderful. I think what we do is try and show the
Italian lifestyle as an Italian, make it accessible to
people, make the recipes available. In fact, all of our
recipes from Season One to Season Three and even some
new recipes are all on our web site, which is available
for all of our fans to download.
So I
think what we try and do is bring in aspects of our life
to the show. So Nina (his wife) and I, because we spend
so much time in
Italy,
we’re able to bring in. There are no extras on our show;
the people you see are friends of ours, our family, our
relatives. So it’s really an extension of our life and
people actually get to kind of be part of it for half an
hour.
Which do
you prefer—Top Chef on Bravo TV or Hell’s
Kitchen on Fox TV? What do you think of these
culinary reality shows? Do you think they pique public
interest in the joys of cooking, or do they do nothing
more than satiate the appetite of the peeping Tom within
us?
I have
never seen an episode of Top Chef or Hell’s
Kitchen, I’m sorry. I’ve been really busy with the
launch of our new CD soundtrack book, as well as a
lifestyle cookbook that I’m writing…not to mention all
the traveling I’ve been doing for the show. As for
reality shows, I’m not fond of many of them, especially
the ones that put down people or are competitive and
mean-spirited. I don’t think many of these
reality-cooking shows inspire people to cook. In fact,
many of them feel contrived and have nothing to do with
cooking or having passion for food. Hopefully, reality
TV—even those of the cooking genre—will just be a phase.
Of all
the episodes in the new season, give us one that you
feel is a definite must-not-miss.
My wife
Nina often says this—it’s like each episode is a child,
and that would be like asking a parent who is his
favorite child. Really, the outcome of the episodes, the
episodes that you think are going to be so great, is
generally good. But the ones that you think are going to
be just okay are the ones that surprise you, and are the
ones that have beauty and wonderful moments. |
