“I love a visit to the market to inspire what I’m going to I make,” says Emiko Davies, the Australian-Japanese food writer and photographer. “Food is truly so seasonal in the countryside where I live. When I’m planning what to cook, I see what looks good at the market, and then think about what I want to build around that.”
The countryside in question is a small town in the hilltops of Tuscany, where Davies lives with her two daughters and husband, Marco. Cooking at home, as you would expect in a small Italian town, is a family affair. Whether it’s a casual meal or a larger event, everyone has their role. “It’s usually Marco and I cooking together,” Davies says. “I always do the dessert; he loves preparing fish or meat. I’ll make the pasta, but if there is any kind of sauce involved, that’s Marco’s favourite job, too. And Luna, my five-year-old, is the best washer-upper and pasta-machine-cranker!”
But it’s not just the produce that inspires Davies – the entire Italian way of entertaining has altered how she operates: “Here, entertaining usually means multiple courses in a specific order,” she says. “Now when we entertain, we normally start with an aperitivo – our go-tos are some [crackers] and olives. It doesn’t need to be over the top; you don’t want to ruin anyone’s appetite. Then we sit down at a long table with antipasto – salumi and cheeses, crostini, that kind of thing – followed by pasta, and then a main and sides. At home in Australia, we would probably just have everything on the table at once, so the Italian way is a bit more work. But it generally means more time at the table, a slower-paced meal, and time to talk, eat, drink
