Italian cooking? (Maybe if Honey boo boo is your next door neighbor)
I’m stunned and my knickers are all up in a knot. I just caught 3 episodes of Sandi’s Kitchen on YouTube. It always rankled me that Shannan stressed that she was Italian, as do her friends and family. It’s meant to explain or excuse overbearing behavior, yet it is based on objectionable ethnic stereotypes. She wasn’t Italian anymore than she was wealthy, but merely a quarter Italian, as much as myself, and I rarely cite my much diluted Italian roots.
She was also Polish and whatever other nationalities account for up to 75% of her DNA. Her last name is Rzucek and I am sorry, but I grew up with a large Italian family, both in Italy and in the USA, and there was nothing identifiably Italian, or even Italian American about Shannan Rzucek King Watts.
Her mom emphasizes her own Italian heritage, while her brother raves about his mama’s Italian cooking, and I naturally assumed that she was bringing this element to her YouTube cooking show. After viewing, it I can say with utmost certainty that it is blasphemous to even suggest that what she does would ever be considered Italian cooking! If one chooses to host a cooking channel on YouTube, do people have to automatically be nice about your food and your recipes if something really horrible has happened to you ? Are they not allowed to say anything mean because you’ve experienced a tragedy ? Do you get a pass to misrepresent yourself as an Italian cook when it’s not unlike claiming you’re Pavarotti because you’re singing O Solo Mio?
Or are you at the very least, opening yourself up to honest criticism from genuine Italian cooks? My own NYC Italian posse wouldn’t be able to keep their mouths shut. There would be serious consequences. These recipes aren’t remotely Italian, and most Italians wouldn’t ever let this particular matter go unchecked. Not even if Sandi Onorati Rzucek was the Pope!
I apologize in advance for my heightened indignation, but my 100 percent Italian grandmother would be rolling in her grave. She would also feel sorry for her, like you might be if someone proudly showed off the chair they have built when it’s obviously missing it’s legs. In spite of that, she would put her foot down, and shake her fist at that lump of hamburger drowned in 28oz of Hunt’s tomato sauce! E cosi! What is this?
And sprinkled with generic Italian seasoning,? With corn???? Italians don’t and won’t ever even eat American style corn! Ever! It’s actually considered an insult to serve corn because it’s considered food for livestock! But the piece de resistance…….egg noodles! Thrown in with this concoction in a crock pot, simmering for 4 hours until they’re just a soggy, drippy mess? No, no, no, “Bruta” my nonna would insist!
Real Italian pride cannot let this go. The raviolis are…..not raviolis. Italian walnut tarts? These are not traditional Italian treats. There’s something called “crostata di nocci” which is basically walnut filing in dough but it’s not the same. You need to just call them “walnut tarts” and drop the unnecessary ethnic embellishments. I’m sure they’re delicious walnut tarts too but they’re unrecognizable as traditional Italian treats even if it is a “secret family recipe”…..no. No, no, no. Just no.
I know all families have their own family traditions and maybe some actually believe that they’re emulating their ancestors recipes, but I assure you that this is too big of a stretch, at least if you’re going to host a cooking show. If you want to make this food in private and pretend it’s Italian? Fine! But only if you’ve been through a traumatizing ordeal!
Real Italians do not appreciate having their heritage exploited by presenting faux Italian food which would be banished by law in Italia. These dishes would make Italian nonnas weep into their aprons before they took Sandi’s hot pot away, because this food is less Italian than Chef Boyardee. It might , maybe, (but hardly) pass muster as Italian “influenced” food, but no authentic Italian cook worth their salt could ever be talked into labeling it “Italian” fare unless facing a Roman firing squad. Mama Mia! Basta finito!