Focus on Food

Jill's Journal: Today was spent at an offbeat museum: the Culinary Arts Museum at Johnson & Wales University. The school has turned out chefs like Emeril Lagasse and has an extensive “food” museum with a rebuilt New England tavern, rebuilt diners, vintage stoves and iceboxes, and more antique kitchen gadgets than I even knew existed. There’s an extensive menu collection which includes presidential menus (and china) and personal letters from presidents to chefs. There's ancient kitchen items from Asia, including a fascinating wine “flask” from the 4th century. They even had information from a 63 BC dinner party where one of the guests of honor was Julius Caesar. Fascinating stuff! The picture is a recreation of a 1942 kitchen in America.

All that food talk made us hungry and we decided to have an early dinner out instead of at home. Rob told me to find something local, something that wasn’t a chain. Did I ever! We stumbled upon San Vivaldo Trattoria in West Warwick and immediately noticed the herbs growing in bathtubs all around the little parking lot. Rob commented, “This might be a little too local…” but apparently we were feeling adventurous. We walked in to what looked like a converted house and a very gruff Italian man sat us down in what felt like an Italian home’s dining room, then ignored us for half an hour. There was one other family there and he was feeding them first. It was clear this was a one-man operation: he was the owner, host, waiter, and chef.

And there were no menus.

At one point, Madelyn needed to use the restroom. The very gruff owner/host/waiter/chef accosted me at the bathroom door and barked a few questions my way. What did the kids like to eat? What kind of meat did I like? And what about my husband?

I’ve never ordered in a bathroom before, but this trip is all about new experiences, right? :) As I answered his questions with the two or three words he was looking for, he disappeared into the kitchen, exclaiming in Italian all the time. I have to confess I was a little frightened.

We had no idea what kind of food was coming our way. After a little while, he brought the girls some simple pasta. Pretty soon out came a plate for me, some delectable mussel/clam/scallop concoction with a garlic wine sauce. And a little later, Rob got a plate too with melt-in-your-mouth veal scaloppine. As we ate and the other family left, the man’s gruffness started to subside and he began talking to us. He started by comparing our kids to the kids who were in the other group – he felt ours were well-behaved, but worried that the others were going to grow up unsupervised and wild. We learned all about how he worries about the future of America, about his international culinary career, and mostly about how he feels about politicians in Rhode Island. “They’re thieves, every one of them! They rob-a the air we breathe!” (Insert fabulous Italian accent and animated hand gestures here.)

He was pleased with our girls and after dinner, he took them outside to meet his cat (who only speaks Italian) and to see his little Fiat which he had shipped over from Italy. We left feeling like we’d been transported to Italy for the early evening to enjoy a divine homecooked meal in a Tuscan kitchen. Bellissimo!