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| KENNETH
ALBERT CALASCIONE |
BIOGRAPHY |
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This
is a very short biography and if you want more information
you can visit the contributor's website where you
will usually find contact details. If you wish us
to pass a message on email
us.
I
emailed Ken to ask him to let us know a little bit about
himself and his interest in food and this was his reply:
 Yes,
that most certainly is me in the photo at the port on
Panarea - wish I was there now.
I
am originally from New York City, a Brooklyn native
to be exact, and first generation Siciliano-Americano.
My
passion for anything culinary began in the kitchen of
our home in Brooklyn. My mother was a wonderful cook,
as was my grandmother. Needless to say, my father appreciated
fine food as well, and we frequently dined out in and
around the city, usually in Italian restaurants. Us
Italians, I am sure you are aware, are hard pressed
to do without our pasta.
The
aromas emanating from our little kitchen when my mother
was putting together a family meal had my attention
from a very early age. I would spend hours with her
there, whether helping, watching or snapping up samples
of polpetti or dipping a piece of bread into her hearty
sugo to sample its various cooking stages.
Her
culinary abilities began to penetrate, and I suppose
became permanently imbedded, in my palate. I began cooking
once I was on my own in the mid-1960s. I worked in all
aspects of the restaurant business, first in New York
and then San Francisco, where my professional cooking
experience actually began. I have traveled extensively
throughout Italy where I have spent a considerable amount
of time, as well as in Sicily, the Aeolian Islands and
Messina Province, where I still have quite an extensive
family.
I
began working in Italian restaurants several decades
ago, eventually becoming chef /owner of Ristorante La
Traviata, in Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1989. The recipe
for Linguine
con Gamberi e Zafferano is from the La Traviata
files.
I
am currently living in Palm Desert, California. My web
site (click
here) is hopefully the beginning of what will eventually
develop into a fully illustrated cookbook combining
Aeolian and Sicilian recipes that I have collected,
combined with those of my family heritage and related
recipes from the restaurant.
Regards,
Kenneth
Albert Calascione
La Cucina Eoliana e Siciliana
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