Author Profile: Christina Pirello

Christina Pirello teaches whole food cooking at Walnut Hill College as well as via her web site and her Emmy-award winning PBS TV series. We just added Christina’s 2021 cookbook The Macroterranean Way to ckbk’s collection (it will soon be joined by Vegedibles, published by the author in 2023). In our latest Author Q&A, Christina shares some of the secrets behind her enduring career as a culinary educator.

By Christina Pirello

Q. What do you mean when you refer to a “Macroterranean” approach to cooking?

I like to say that I come from the ‘prejudices’ of Chinese Medicine and macrobiotic thinking, both of which I credit with giving me the tools I used to recapture my own health but also the tools I use daily to help people create wellness through their food choices.

I am also half Italian, and that part of my family had the greatest food influence over me. As I learned to cook in my mother’s kitchen with our Italian aunts, cousins, my Nonna and other assorted friends and relatives, they gave me the invaluable gift of respect for food, ingredients and tradition. The joy I feel in the kitchen is a direct result of the joy they instilled in me.

My Italian relatives were also notorious for using food as the first medicine. Growing up in poverty, they had little access to doctors and healthcare, so they used nature, food and intuition and discovered the power of food from a Mediterranean perspective… quite effectively, I might add.

With the Mediterranean Diet getting the (well-deserved) credit for being the healthiest way for humans to eat, it seemed natural to me to marry the two ideas. Hence, the ‘Macroterranean’ way to cook, the perfect combo of Eastern philosophical wisdom and Mediterranean practical wisdom.

Q. How does your Italian background influence your cooking? What are some of your favorite traditional Italian dishes?
My Italian background influences everything about my cooking. My love of the kitchen was born when I was very young, surrounded by the beautiful women of my family as they cooked, sang, drank coffee and laughed while they prepared feasts from the freshest ingredients from my grandfather’s garden. There was something decidedly sexy about how these women were in the kitchen, although I had no words for it as a kid. I just knew that I loved how I felt being a part of that experience, in that room, in that love. 

My respect for ingredients, for seasonality, for freshness; my commitment to not waste comes from them. Their poverty drove them to cook simply, exquisitely and with no waste.

Some of my favorite dishes come from that time of my life: luscious caponata served on home-baked bread, pasta with fresh spring peas and lemon, spicy white beans with sautéed escarole and home-baked cantucci cookies still top my list. And of course, pizza, which would be my last meal on earth; good homemade pizza.

Q. You also do cooking tours of Italy—if you had to pick a favourite Italian region, in terms of the food, what would it be (and what are some of those dishes)?

First, let me say that I love our tours. Small groups, staying in one place (a villa or boutique hotel), grabbing their own slice of La Dolce Vita for the duration of our stay. We tour, cook, eat, soak in rhe culture and rest. I love cooking for the groups, hitting the markets for fresh food…heaven.

If I had to choose a region based solely on the food, it would be Campania, where my mother’s family is from. Castellemare di Stabia is a coast town outside Naples city center that is now chic, but when my grandparents lived there, it was a poor part of the city, but everyone had a garden and cooked.

Of course, Naples is famous for the invention of pizza and it is absolutely exquisite. Their Tomato Pie (tomato gravy, basil, oregano, olive oil and garlic) is the best in the world. The pastas like Spaghetti alla Puttanesca rich with tomatoes, capers and olives is a must-have for me (even though I make it with no anchovies). And course, the classic Pasta e Fagioli is a meal in a bowl. Is there a better combo than pasta and beans? I think not.

Q. How about the Irish influence?

Well, as much as I loved my Irish Nana, her cooking left a lot to be desired. We used to have dinner there on one Sunday a month and I remember, as a kid, asking if we could bring the food. Nana served typical boiled dinners without much flavor or flair.

But once a year, my mother, out of respect for my Irish father (who adored Italian food and my mother) cooked a traditional dinner of corned beef and cabbage with Irish soda bread on St. Patrick’s Day. I fell in love with soda bread and make variations of it to this day

Q. Your cooking is focused on healthy choices, but you mention it wasn’t always that way—you had a phase of youthful junk food rebellion from your healthy eating parents. Do you still retain any guilty food pleasures?

I have discovered as the years of healthy eating have passed, with me loving how I cook and eat, that very little from my past junk-food vegetarian days has any appeal. I guess now, I would say that I treat myself to dark chocolate, homemade cookies and the occasional handful of corn chips. I’m not sure I consider them guilty pleasures, but no food should be associated with guilt as it so often is in healthy eating circles. In my view, it’s one of the reasons we struggle so much with making better choices. Is our diet clean or are we eating dirty? Yuck; what an off-putting concept. We can be like the bad news at a party…

I think if people associated food with joy and wellness, not grim deprivation when they make healthy choices, we would see far less dysfunction around food.

Should we skip ultra-processed foods? We should. They bring us very little in the way of nourishment and they make us feel bad, so what’s the point? Ditch them for real food. And cook. We absolutely, with no questions asked, need to cook: seasonal, simple, delicious fresh foods. What’s not appealing about that.

Q. You have obtained a masters in Food Science and Nutrition—to what extent has that informed and changed your cooking?

I chose to pursue my masters after I had become an expert in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Talking to mainstream audiences about health and wellness comes with an expectation of expertise and some kind of credibility. I chose this particular masters because it allowed me to delve into research, which I love doing and helped me build my unique style of combining eastern and western wisdom to give people the best advice I know.

What I didn’t expect is how this degree would open my eyes to how closely Traditional Chinese Medicine and western science overlap in their opinions and wisdom. It gave me the gift of blending information ancient and modern for people to fall in love with.

I am in love with the idea of study and being a student, in academics and in life. I think I will always study and hopefully always remain in what my Asian teachers called ‘student mind:’ always learning.

Q. Your weekly TV show Christina Cooks started way back in the 1990s. What’s the key to its longevity and success?

Honestly, I don’t know. When we began, no one and I mean no one, was cooking with tofu, tempeh and sea vegetables on television. I think our initial appeal was that we were just so weird. And to this day, no one (that I know of…) is talking about food in the same way as I do. I bring together eastern thought and western nutrition to create a style of thinking about food that is really relatable to people and easy to implement in their daily lives.

I also encourage people to be gentle with themselves and change gradually, as it fits with their lives. I try to never lecture or feel like they are wrong with the choices they’ve made, although I do have an affinity for stating shocking statistics to get their attention. I love meeting people where they are and encouraging gentle changes.

I think, in the end, I am somehow able to convey real information that people can use…and want…that helps them improve their relationship with food in what I consider to be the world’s largest classroom.

Q. You also teach whole food cooking classes to students at Walnut Hill College in Philadelphia. What attracts you about teaching? And what advice would you give to a young person considering setting out on a career in the food industry?

I LOVE teaching. It’s the perfect venue for me to share all of the information in my head, all my experience and all my passion for wellness. Influencing how young chefs think about food and cooking (even just a little bit) can help to change an industry based solely on profit to one that respects ingredients and cooking and still can turn a profit.

My advice for anyone considering a career in food is that it’s the greatest job in the world. Being a chef is hot, sweaty; you are overworked and often, underpaid. You work long hours and miss most holidays with your family. But there is nothing like working a service when the tickets are flying into the kitchen and the crews are all in sync and the rhythm of the kitchen flows. The food industry is tough and demands all of you to succeed, but it is some of the most satisfying work there is, in my view.

You need to love it to last; you need to be excited by all things food, almost to an obsession.

Q. Can you tell us some of the cookbooks and authors which have had a big impact on you?

Like most chefs of my generation, the work done by Chef Alice Waters had a huge impact on me as she was one of the first chefs to bring the farmers out of the shadows and into the spotlight as the people responsible for your food. Her cookbooks are exquisite.

Chef Dan Barber has picked up the mantle and taken her work to another level with the regeneration of heirloom seeds and using locally grown and produced products.

Chef Eric Ripert wrote Vegetable Simple in 2021 and I fell completely in love with the respect for ingredients that shines through every word on every page.

I love Erin French from The Lost Kitchen in Maine. As a self-taught cook, she has created a style of cuisine that celebrates local producers and seasonality in the most creative way. While as a vegan, her book requires a lot of modifying, I find her style to be inspiring.

As a former pastry chef, I would be remiss not to mention the late, great Maida Heatter. From cookies to chocolate, she inspired me to think outside the box with her recipes. Her precision in her work made it easy for me to adapt so many of her treats to plant-based and healthy. Her book, The Book of Great Cookies inspires me to this day. I quote her all the time. When she was asked if she liked cooking as much as baking, she replied that she did; cooking was like the warm-up to the baseball game.

I love Stanley Tucci’s books on his family history as it relates to food and cooking, Taste and What I Ate in a Year. His passion for all things Italian just feeds me.

Molly Katzen’s books have always inspired me to think creatively as I cook. Finally, any written word by Chef Anthony Bourdain enchants me.

Q. What’s your favorite object in your kitchen?

That’s like asking me to choose a favorite child! I am not much for gadgets, so my needs are basic. I would have said my favorite tool is a tie between my ceramic chef knife and my cutting board, both essential to making a great meal. But I have recently fallen in love with my first true ‘gadget,’ a mill for grinding spices and dried herbs, called FinaMill. A very cool tool.

Q. Is there a little known or underappreciated ingredient which you have a passion for? 

My passions for ingredients is also pretty basic as I try to make sure that my recipes are accessible to as many people as possible and easy for me to cook well in a busy life. But If I am truthful, natto, a fermented soybean product that is incredibly nutrient-dense is vastly underappreciated. It’s an acquired taste, but a powerhouse for wellness.

I would also say that kala namak, a black salt is under-valued in a kitchen. With a unique undertone of sulphur in its flavor, it’s the perfect ingredient to create an egg-like taste in scrambled tofu and vegan omelets. 

Finally, I have fallen madly in love with preserved lemons as my condiment of choice in so many dishes, from roasted vegetables to salads. The fresh lemon flavor is made more complex by the brining and lifts dishes from simple to sublime with just a touch of the preserved zest and flesh. I make my own but I also buy them—I really like the imported versions from Morocco or Italy.

The Macroterranean Way is one of almost 1000 cookbooks available in full to ckbk Premium Members.

Be sure to watch out for Vegedibles, another book by Christina Pirello, coming to ckbk soon.You can sign up to be notified by email when new books are added to ckbk.

More ckbk features