+5 Cooking up a Revolution
Cooking up a Revolution
Cooking up a Revolution
Cooking up a Revolution
Cooking up a Revolution
FANO, Italy – Inside a nondescript doorway on a busy street in this seaside town, eighty-six-year-old grandmother Maria Tena is attempting to upset one of the oldest traditions in Italian culture: How to cook seafood.
“Maria is a revolutionary,” said Domenica Tamati, her daughter. “She wanted to get back to the easiest way of cooking food in the sense of keeping it simple.”
Maria’s rule is equally revolutionary for a restaurateur:
“It is better to not eat than to eat something that is not good.”
Maria and Domenica are the eccentric duo that own, operate and cook at Trattoria Da Maria under a set of eco-friendly rules that guide every action from purchase through preparation and serving of their seafood meals.
For example:
- If they can’t get fresh fish that day, they don’t open.
- They only serve small fish.
- They only use salt, pepper, parsley, lemon and olive oil.
- They don’t allow meat on the premises.
- They won’t use cans or plastic containers in their cooking.
Maria said these ideals were taught to her at a young age. She was born in Monteciccardo, a small town located the hills of central Italy between the mountaintop city of Urbino and the seaport of Fano. Raised by her aunt when her mother passed, she gained her passion for cooking fish by growing up the daughter of a fisherman.
As she tells it, the family used traditional techniques of Italian cooking with plenty of fresh seafood from the Adriatic. Maria met her husband who decided after their marriage that he was going to become a fisherman as well. The couple moved to the center of Fano and had two daughters.
“My passion was for cooking and then fish so I thought I could start something in the center because it is near home and it is doing something for my daughters,” she recalled.
So, 50 years ago they purchased a space on Via IV Novembre that had housed a restaurant for two hundred years and opened Trattoria Da Maria – named for Maria.
She wanted to create a restaurant that was ecofriendly, a place that customers could interact from all parts of the world and enjoy small portions of quality food.
“We should get back to forms of fishing that are eco-friendly because the Adriatic offers the possibility to fish smaller and fish in an eco-friendlier way.”
Maria and Domenica said the rules they follow are designed to be as friendly to the planet as possible. For example, they do not purchase big fish because they believe it is more harmful to the sea than catching smaller species.
“Social, economic and cultural factors have fueled the notion of bigger is better in our fishing and eating practices,” said Domenica. “We should get back to forms of fishing that are eco-friendly because the Adriatic offers the possibility to fish smaller and fish in an eco-friendlier way.”
The restaurant also does not use plastic water bottles or cans.
“We respect the human being and animals – animals first actually,” Domenica said with a laugh. “Here any animal is welcome. In fact, the other day a man came in to eat with a (pet) wolf.”
That different ethic was on display one Wednesday in June. Through the juniper green string curtains over the kitchen door, Maria and Domenica were scaling, cleaning and slicing the small fish and langoustine they purchased from fishermen early that morning. The aroma of fresh fish grilling over natural charcoal mixes with the essence of steam rising from a kettle of boiling shrimp.
The mother and daughter not only value how the fish are caught, but how they are prepared. In the kitchen painted seafoam green there are not many spices other than salt, pepper, and parsley. Maria uses minimal seasoning to ensure that the natural flavoring of the seafood is brought out and not masked by other spices.
Most of the fish is grilled or boiled, then drizzled with olive oil from a small local producer. They only use ingredients from local producers with whom they have a direct relationship. Even though the ingredients and preparation are the same every day, the menu is not.
It is possible to get clams and polenta one day and come back the next to receive boiled tender langoustine.
“The sea chooses the food we offer, not the customer,” said Maria.
And just like fruit, every fish has its own season – which means only what is in season will end up on the plate at Da Maria.
So at lunchtime that Wednesday customers from Holland, Italy and America found calamari, shrimp, squid, hake, sole and cuttlefish on their plates. All were purchased fresh from fishermen that morning.
The meals arrived on silver platters to tables on the patio in the rear of the restaurant. It is a calming green space that is also home to their two cats.
Serving customers their fresh fish meals is their favorite part of the occupation for this mother-daughter team.
“It’s definitely hard and there are many sacrifices, but we enjoy the possibility to interact with many different people because every person brings a new experience to us,” said Domenica.
Maria and Domenica chat with their customers because they think it’s important to create a connection with them.
Today, Luciano Bruna is satisfied with his spread of fish, which is his favorite part of the meal. He has traveled here from Parma in northern Italy, for his third visit to Da Maria.
“What they prepare is quite uncommon to any place I have been,” he said. “They use few ingredients. It’s a delicate way to cook fish but I like it.”
Across the patio, Maria is laughing with a family from Holland. They are on holiday in Italy and were told by friends they should stop by Da Maria for lunch. The mother, father, grandma, and two children are sharing a plate of shrimp and clams.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen because I live daily,” Maria says. “I don’t make projects for the future because I’m trying to live – living good and living well in the present.”
The youngest member of the family, a daughter with curly blonde hair, is standing up in her chair eating. The oil from the clam has greased her pale petite fingers. Domenica soon joins the family and brings a wipe for the young girl’s hands.
Maria looks at Domenica’s profile with pride in her wrinkle framed eyes. When asked if Domenica will take over the restaurant after her, Maria’s answer is as simple and direct as her style of cooking.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen because I live daily,” Maria says. “I don’t make projects for the future because I’m trying to live – living good and living well in the present.”
Video by Katherine Inman & Olivia White
