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Italian Kitchen Foray Leads To Fast Friendship
By John Burton
RED BANK - Spending long hours in a busy and hot restaurant kitchen may not be everyone's vision of an ideal vacation. But for Marie Badarani it was a little slice of heaven.
But there is a reason for Badarani's exuberance over her recent experience: the restaurant in question is nestled in Parma, the picturesque northern Italian city and Badarani developed what seems to be lasting friendships.
"I felt very privileged and still astonished that I was there," she said of her recent experiences.
Badarani's foray into the kitchen in Northern Italy last month was about six years in the making.
Badarani, who lives on John Street, has an antiques business in Milburn, and was approached by designer Marshall Watson six years ago, to work with him seeking items in Europe for a Red Bank home.
Initially, the plan was for Badarani and Watson to travel to France to line up antiques, but Watson decided on a small side trip to Italy.
After long days of inspecting and hunting for the works, "Our reward at night was going out to eat," Badarani noted of her stay. But the eateries they visited, suggested by travel guides, were disappointing.
"I wanted to try something local," and that led to one evening, when Badarani and Watson came upon La Filoma, a relatively small café situated in a 16th century Palazzo-style building, and that was a life changing moment.
The two travelers, Badarani told, found themselves at La Filoma every night from then on. They tried the restaurant's signature dish, a pumpkin-stuffed ravioli with caramelized fruit sauce. "We tasted that and got another one," and that led to trying other house specialties, she admitted. Eventually the café's owner, Marzia Vallini, "wanted to see who were these crazy Americans who were ordering everything," Badarani recalled.
Badarani and Vallini struck up a friendship as Badarani learned about Vallini's life and the restaurant's operation.
Vallini and her husband, Bruno, have been running the café for 38 years. "I never forgot the taste of her food," Badarani said, who told her new friend she would like to return and work in Vallini's kitchen.
"She is a very generous, open person," Badarani said of Vallini. "She said, 'Come, you can be with me in the restaurant."
During the end of October and early November Badarani was able to return to Parma, to learn from her friend.
"I wasn't really sure what to expect," she acknowledged. But on her arrival she soon found herself, "not only was I observing, but she allowed me to make things," she said, including some very complex dishes, all made by hand and from scratch. "I pinched myself," she said of the experience. "I can't believe I'm here."
Badarani would arrive at the restaurant in the mornings, and work with the staff on preparing the day's specials; she would leave in the afternoons and again return in the early evenings for the dinner business. She would also sweep the floors or wash the dishes, if needed, and came into direct contact with "the unforgiving nature of food and service."
The Northern Italian cuisine is different from what most people may think of as Italian. Really no tomato sauces, not much in the way of garlic, or other items many would associate with Italian cooking. Vallini relies on the local ingredients, such as wild game, truffles, cheeses, butter and other dairy goods, for which the area is known. The food is more similar to French than southern Italian, Badarani explained.
The cooking became a special affair for Badarani, who said it is a sort of language of its own. "It is a cultural event," she noted. "It's not just about the food; it's about the people, the land, to see what other do and why."
During her time in Europe, Badarani said, "I became part of their lives" traveling back and forth to La Filoma and her hotel, learning about the residents' and shopowners' lives, she noted. Badarani came to appreciate what the Vallinis do. "She was quite the artist," Badarani said of Marzia.
"The delicacy and subtly she brought to the food was in contrast to her personality," Badarani said of Vallini, whom she described as a large, tough, but gregarious woman.
Badarani tries out what she learned for friends and family, now marveling at what she can do by way of a Flan Di Ricotta Parmigiano with spinach and truffles or an Eggplant Parmigiana, made like Marzia.
Marzia and Bruno Vallini and their son are planning a trip - their first to the U.S. - in the spring to visit Badarani and Badarani said she is looking forward to it. She hopes to find a local restaurant that would be willing to allow Vallini to perform her magic in the kitchen. "I think it's a way of sharing a dream," she said.
