Southern Italy’s historic influence on Guelph is advancing one again – this time, bite by byte.
Long-time Guelphite Natalina Bombino Campagnolo, known widely for her Italian cooking school Natalina’s Kitchen, has launched a six-part, professionally produced online video version of her popular Classic Italian Cooking course.
Her intent is to more broadly promote the culinary craft and offer basic food preparation skills. The in-class course, which she’s offered from her Guelph studio kitchen for the past seven years, could handle no more than 10 participants. It was offered for six weeks and covered an array of recipes. It will now be reduced to one-time, single-themed classes.
The new online version gives Campagnolo the potential to reach many, many more, in her quest to get people cooking again.
“Cooking is a basic skill we should all know,” she says. “I’m not teaching rocket science, and you don’t have to dress in a white coat to be a cook. I’m teaching approachable fundamentals, mostly family recipes learned from my Italian mother, of how to cook a fantastic four-course meal. I don’t take any skill for granted; I teach like the students know nothing.”
At first, Campagnolo anticipated interest in her classes would come from young people who were starting to settle into domestic life and wanted to feed themselves and their kids something other than fast food. She thought that would be particularly true with the online version, given young people’s e-savvy.
However, she’s finding a broad age range of people are taking an interest.
“You can acquire confidence as a cook by taking classes,” she says. “That doesn’t have an age limit. I think a couple of generations of people have missed some life skills like cooking, and they’re anxious to learn the fundamental background of it.”
The kind of southern Italian cooking Campagnolo teaches is ideal for people wanting to either develop new skills, or sharpen existing ones. Her specialty is southern Italian cucina povera, which translates into “poor kitchen.” Ingredients in this cooking style are typically basic, local foods that are turned into delicious meals such as risotto, potato gnocchi, and fresh pasta and sauces.
“This region of southern Ontario has developed and maintained its southern Italy food culture because of our historical connection with Italian immigrants, and the fact that southern Ontario is so good at producing vegetables, which are a staple in cucina povera recipes,” says Campagnolo.
Indeed, a great deal of research, sponsored by the provincial government, goes into developing and improving fruit and vegetable production in Ontario, at research facilities owned by the province and managed by the University of Guelph.
For her part, Campagnolo has recruited a professional review panel for feedback on her video series. For more information, visit here.
