So writing this book was also a test of my memory, in that I was sometimes remembering recipes that had been told to me decades ago. I kept some rudimentary notes, and was glad to see how much I was able to recall and preserve. One of the consequences of media is that we don't make use of oral memory in the way that our ancestors did. So if we don't get this information preserved, it'll disappear with the last practitioners of the oral tradition. That's exactly what happens.
People are much more anonymous.
We know the names of celebrities, but we don't know them as people. But I'm still of the mind that I'm an individual, and I try to see others the same way, and by preserving these recipes, I'm trying to give these people individual voice. In doing so, you're forced to confront the conflict between your Italian and American heritages, which you've never been able to fully reconcile. It's really a dilemma to which there's no resolution, but I've tried to get the best out of each world. But I've tried in this book to write about the great variety of people who have come into my life, some real characters, who are wonderful people.