Mr. Speck, you are actually a writer and screenwriter. Now, with Terra Mediterranea, you have presented something like a cookbook. Why? It is above all a book about the people of the Mediterranean. It tells the stories behind the dishes. It came about because readers of my novels, who are all set in the Mediterranean region, noticed that people eat all the time. At readings they suggested that I should write something about food.
Do you write about food all the time and don’t notice? I wasn’t aware of it. But of course, my novels are family stories. The important scenes take place when everyone sits down to eat. And in my novel Bella Germania I described how Italian cuisine changed Germany. One of the protagonists, Giovanni Marconi, brings Sicilian cuisine to Munich and opens the city’s first Italian delicatessen. So this book was already about how recipes migrate between cultures and connect people. And then I did my research in Tunis for Piccola Sicilia, the next novel.
So you’re going to Tunisia to find out about Sicily? Piccola Sicilia was the Italian port district of Tunis. That’s where I met Jacob Lellouche. He grew up in the district, that’s where he had his restaurant – the only Jewish restaurant in Tunis. He told me how the various religious communities in the neighborhood came together over food. And that they got to know the others, that is, the Christians and Muslims, through the banquets to which they invited each other. He said the beautiful sentence: We were siblings. That’s when I realized that food has the power to bring people together despite their differences. And so the idea was born to connect the shores of the Mediterranean Sea in a book about Mediterranean cuisine. In it, Jacob is one of three chefs presenting their personal recipes.
In the introduction you write that the book should be an invitation to sit down at the table with “us”. Who is us? This means the three cooks, i.e. Martina Caruso from Sicily, Jacob Lellouche from Tunis and Fadi Kattan from Bethlehem, and their families. My photographer and I visited the three at home. We want to share this experience with the readers: They should have the feeling that they are sitting at the table with us, enjoying the dishes and hearing the family stories about them. The recipes invite you to cook them yourself.
They present Mediterranean cuisine based on three cultures: Southern Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. That’s why you made the journey. Why this route?The Mediterranean Sea is the only sea on earth that connects three continents in such close proximity. For each of these continents I have chosen a place that represents its culinary heritage. These are all locations that the readers of my novels already know. In Bella Germania there is a Sicilian family. In Piccola Sicilia there is a Tunisian Jewish family. In Jaffa Road there is an Israeli family and a Palestinian family. That was the route given.
So you already knew the recipe givers? I knew their hometowns. I’ve been friends with Martina Caruso since Bella Germania, and with Jacob Lellouche since Piccola Sicilia. I discovered Fadi Kattan through newspaper reports last year. He is being hailed as the new star of Levantine cuisine. But like the other two, his recipes have never appeared in a German cookbook. That was fine. When I spoke to him, he immediately said: Welcome, come over!
Each recipe in the book tells of a journey, an encounter, a transformation, you write. What do you mean?The Mediterranean has always been a lively meeting place. The people who traveled from one bank to the other took their grandparents’ recipes with them. These traditions have then in turn combined with the local recipes there. Cultural history is reflected in such family stories.
Stories like… ?In the 1940s, nobody in Germany could have imagined that we would all eat pizza at some point. Later it was the kebab. We are currently experiencing a hummus boom. A typical Middle Eastern appetizer. In Arabic, “hummus” means: chickpea. People who came to Germany from the eastern Mediterranean region brought it with them. Now you can find hummus in all variations in Berlin, Munich and Hamburg – from the falafel stand to the top restaurant. Another example of how cuisine moves with people and local eating habits change as a result.
The book contains traditional dishes, but also modern interpretations.Right. The three chefs will present traditional recipes, such as Sicilian cannoli al pistaccio, but also dishes that they have created themselves. Martina Caruso has developed recipes she calls “Terra e Mare” in which she combines seafood and meat. A paella that she ate on a trip to Spain served as inspiration. She brought the idea home and applied it to Sicilian cuisine using local ingredients: mussels with lardo and lentils. Then there are the stories that we experienced on the journey – like that of the fish that climbs the wall.
Excuse me?Fadi Kattan asked us to bring fresh fish to Bethlehem from the shop in Jaffa where his grandmother was a regular. Back then, before 1948, as a Christian Palestinian she bought from a Jewish fishmonger. That was everyday life. Fadi’s grandmother Julia Kattan was friends with the fishmonger Paul Sarfati, who had immigrated from Thessaloniki as a Sephardic Jew. We actually found his fish shop, today it belongs to his grandson Arik. When we told him the story, Arik spoke to Fadi on the phone for the first time. Although there is only an hour’s drive between them, there is also an eight meter high wall. With this phone call, the broken connection between the families was resumed; both were incredibly touched. With the nicest perch that Arik could find, we then drove to Bethlehem, i.e. over the wall, where Fadi prepared the fish according to his grandmother’s recipe.
It is not at all easy to define what Mediterranean cuisine actually is. What does it mean to you? I would put it on the back burner and say a Mediterranean meal is always enjoyed in community. You won’t see anyone eating alone on the Mediterranean. This close family relationship, the community and the hospitality connect the countries. There is still room for one guest at each table. Whether in poor or wealthy families, good food is celebrated and shared. And on the boards there is never just one dish, but always several – but the interpretations differ from country to country.
In what? In Middle Eastern culture, for example, there is the tradition of mezze. Different bowls come on the table and you start dipping, along with an arak. It is used to cleanse the taste buds again and again so that you can enjoy the different flavors unadulterated. In Tunisian cuisine, this variation of small appetizers is called “kemia”. However, these are not cleared away when the main course comes, but instead become side dishes, such as the harissa potatoes. By the way, there are also several main courses on the table at the same time. A Sicilian menu also consists of a variation of different dishes, but they don’t come at the same time, but one after the other. Even if it’s ten courses. The ingredients that go with everything: olive oil, fresh fruit and vegetables such as tomatoes, courgettes and oranges, and lots of fish. How the ingredients are prepared varies from place to place. That’s what I like about Mediterranean cuisine – it’s very diverse.
Because the different cuisines mix, you think? The dishes from Terra Mediterranea tell of the dialogue between cultures. They celebrate their terroir, but also the encounter with other identities. The concept of a closed identity is foreign to the Mediterranean. An example is the Involtini Josephine by Fadi Kattan. These are Italian roulades that have cult status in Fadi’s Palestinian family. A great-aunt of Fadi from Bethlehem, Josephine, fell in love with an Italian, Nicola Barbagallo, in cosmopolitan Alexandria. From her Italian mother-in-law, she learned how to prepare beef roulades with parsley and pine nuts, her lover’s favorite dish, which would later also become the favorite dish of their children. Today, generations later, the roulades are the favorite dish of an entire family.
You have experienced a lot on your Mediterranean trip. Have you learned something for life? More flexibility and a more relaxed approach to crisis situations. On the Mediterranean, people live with chaos. That something works is the exception; that something does not work, the rule. The Mediterranean people are more spontaneous, more flexible and are in top form when a talent for improvisation is required. And they are resilient. I experienced that with Fadi Kattan in particular. Bethlehem is arguably one of the most complicated places to run a restaurant. But Fadi faces all adversities with composure, always has a plan B, takes care of the weaker ones. The community is central in the Mediterranean countries, it protects against imponderables, the political crisis, the economic chaos. So this book comes at just the right time.
What do you mean? The book is coming out just now, when the clouds are gray and there is a mood of crisis. But it’s about people who know how to deal with it and have an antidote: joie de vivre. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but today we enjoy life – and we enjoy it together!
The book is described as a coffee table book. But is it really one? I see it as a hybrid book. It can be in the living room for the photos by Giò Martorana, which have great artistic quality, in the kitchen for the recipes and in the bedroom for the stories. The book combines different elements; that’s what makes it so special – it moves between borders and between drawers. Just like the recipes and the people portrayed, who stand outside of the clichés and have a very broad horizon.
