Argentina is a fusion of many cultures and peoples, forged by its immigrants, and nothing reflects this more than its cuisine. Italian food, and culture, is now part of the fabric of the country today and a staple in the Mendocino menu. Fresh pasta shops, pizza places and Italian heladarias are one a penny here and in the rest of the country, but you might be surprised to learn that up until only 65 years ago there were no Italian restaurants in Mendoza.
Fernanda Torresi de Corradini pioneered Italian cooking in the region, opening the city’s first Italian restaurant in 1948. Since then Fernanda, her family and her restaurant, La Marchigiana, have taught many Argentine hands the art of pasta making and how to enjoy good Italian food. Her daughter Maria Teresa Corradini de Barbera was always by her mother’s apron and has carried on the Italian cooking tradition here with her romantic vision, contagious good humour and passion for time-honoured Italian food.
At 75, you would be forgiven for thinking that perhaps Maria Teresa was enjoying her deserved retirement, but the truth is far from it. As you look down from this beautiful woman’s gentle eyes you notice that Maria Teresa still has extraordinarily strong arms and firm hands – a testimony to her life in the kitchen, kneading and pasta-making, something that she has no intention of giving up now.
“I will always cook, it is part of my life,” she says simply. But for Maria Teresa cooking is not only part of her everyday life – it is her ancestry, her heritage. It is a nostalgic and amorous process that reminds her of days in the kitchen with her parents. “I always listen to music when I cook, it takes me back to cooking with my mother with my father playing music,” she remembers. “I exercise for my body, I cook for my mind – it is my therapy.”
Although Maria Teresa never studied gastronomy or went to University, she is largely recognised as Mendoza’s authority on Italian cooking – and it is all through experience. From a young age she would watch her mother work (under only tarpaulin on some occasions) turning the simplest ingredients into flavourful dishes. “My mother had very little money but prepared the richest foods,” she said. “That is the magic of Italian cooking – it is very healthy and uses only a few fresh ingredients but comes out with something so flavourful.”
When Maria Teresa (aged 13) and her family arrived in Mendoza after fleeing a sad, war torn La Marche in Italy, there were plenty of Italians already here. “Argentina had open doors for immigrants,” she recalled. Her family had been part of the resistance movement, they were socialists, and after the war was over there was no work and the country was in turmoil. “We came in search of peace and to get away from the fascists,” she said. “We didn’t get away from fascists but everyone wanted peace – no-one wanted to remember the war.”
Although Argentina was different to their beloved La Marche, the young family found their place in what Maria Teresa calls a beautiful land and settled in Mendoza. The one thing that they could not tolerate however was the food. “We were not carnivores!” Maria Teresa exclaimed. “We didn’t want to eat meat all the time – we were used to fish and vegetables. When we arrived the olives were awful and you couldn’t find fresh pasta.”
The family would stoically make and eat their own style of food, using what they could to make their traditional Italian recipes as generations before them had (even up until her last days Fernanda would only ever read Italian cooking books). Their home cooking soon flourished into a family business - La Marchigiana. Starting as a humble pension serving only six traditional Italian dishes, this was the city’s first Italian restaurant. The family’s reputation grew and so did La Marchigiana’s.
As Italian food became more popular in Mendoza the family went on to open a handful of restaurants in the city over the following 60 years, as did some of their original employees. “My mother was like a tree – she started everything!” smiles Maria Teresa. In Mendoza there are now dozens of Italian restaurants, however the Barbera family still spearhead the city’s Italian cuisine with their two most notable restaurants: La Marchigiana and Francesco Barbera.
La Marchigiana is still in the original location of the family pension, Patricias Mendocinas 1550, however after earthquakes and fires it has been re-invented a couple times over. The large restaurant serves many contemporary Italian dishes, some of which incorporate more Argentine flavours, however it proudly retains original recipes created by Fernanda over 60 years ago, including some great pasta dishes (the stuffed ravioli is recommended). It is perhaps not as homely as it first started out however the family still work here, the pasta dishes remain how Fernanda and Maria Teresa used to make them and a loyal workforce (some of them working there for over 50 years) keep La Marchigiana at the heart of Mendoza’s Italian food heritage.
Francesco Barbera is the newer, fine dining option located in the beautiful family home on Chile 1268 with a luxurious setting and gorgeous garden. The food here is creative and contemporary but upholds strong, bold Mediterranean flavours with a rustic presentation and an earthy appeal. Traditional Italian recipes such as stuffed olives, fried polenta and rabbit salad all grace the menu and remain the restaurant’s most popular dishes alongside the legendary homemade pasta, healthy fish dishes and the outrageously delicious and calorific desserts.
This is all accompanied by a cava full of fine wines, silver service and gentle opera playing in the background. Maria Teresa comes out to greet you herself, assuring you that she is by the stove – cooking and making sure everything is as it should be. “I have been making some of these sauces for 60 years,” she explains. “You can only see when they are done by experience – by the aroma and the colours.”
The beautifully laid out restaurant still has a family home cosiness with photos and gifts from friends all decorating the walls. It is here that you begin to understand that to Maria Teresa and her family, the lives, loves and stories behind the food are just as important as the recipe. This is reflected in her cooking books, Aromas de Vida and La Marchigiana: 50 Aniversario, which contain as much poetry and memories as recipes.
Maria Teresa too is like a tree and with five surviving children (two passed away) and 18 grandchildren, the family legacy is sure to continue. Her children and husband Francesco all work with her in the businesses (and some in the kitchen too) and this strong family bond is how Maria Teresa believes her Italian ancestry and traditional cooking will continue in the future. “The most important thing is family,” she said. “My children all work with me and they share in our lives.”
Maria Teresa hopes that traditional Italian cooking will carry on in Argentina, although she recognises that Argentineans have formed their own cuisine and ways of eating, perhaps unrecognisable to the untrained eye. “In Italy we never eat bread with pasta,” she says. “But here I see people do it all the time – every time I see someone do this…” she turns her head in a playful shudder. “The essence of food here is Italian, but the Argentines have created very different dishes. For example ‘Milanesa a la Napolitana’ doesn’t exist in Italy, not in Milan or Naples – it is Argentine.”
It has been a long process, but Maria Teresa feels now more than ever that her family is at home here. “I will be Italian until the end of my days,” she says proudly, “however my family, my grandchildren, are Argentinean.”
Her passion and romanticism about her home country is shared by many immigrant families in Argentina but it is this mix of different cultures’ strong identities and die-hard recipes that makes Argentina what it is today and that is the reason why Argentine cooking is becoming more varied and exciting.
And, how does Maria Teresa make her renowned pasta you ask? “You take flour, eggs and a pinch of salt and knead it as if you are conducting music,” she moved her hands in a sweeping orchestra conductor motion, “then you leave it alone to rest. I always think of making pasta like a marriage. The egg and the flour need time to get to know each other – it is not easy, marriage never is. But if you put in the work and time, it will come out smooth in the end. We are all different people, and we need the time get to know each other.”
I think Maria Teresa is right – it is about time and work, and with the time and work that Maria Teresa, her family and many other Italian immigrants have put in, along with that of the Argentineans, they have formed a perfect marriage. That of Italian food in Argentina.
The Mendoza Sun, written by Amanda Barnes (Contributing Author), photos courtesy of Maria Teresa, published June 6, 2010.
Amanda Barnes is a freelance writer currently living in Mendoza. For more information, visit www.amandabarnes.co.uk or click here to see her profile.
