Eating with Rossini
In a letter to the Marquis Antonio Busca, dated 21 September 1863, Giacchino Rossini, who travelled much throughout his life, wrote, “I travel not so much for the sake of my music as for that of my stomach.” As much as he loved opera, the composer was much devoted to food and good dining. Alessandro Falassi, a member of the Italian Academy of Cuisine, in his biography of Rossini, A Symphony of Tastes, describes the maestro as one of the greatest gastronomes of the 19th century, one “who could have become a celebrated gourmet if only his musical genius had not eclipsed his gastronomic talents”.
As a young man, before he had become financially successful and musically celebrated, the composer was always in debt, confessing to “having been unable to resist this restaurant or that, this bottle of wine or that”. By the time he was 30, he claimed to know all the famed chefs in Europe, and he had a table reserved for him in the best Parisian restaurants. He retired from the musical world when extremely wealthy, at 37, and he dedicated the remaining 40 years of his life to his friends, witty conversation and excellent food.
There is an abundance of anecdotes about Rossini’s love for food and drink. Some are apocryphal, or what we might today call urban myths. Yet others have about them the ring of truth. Those who wrote about Rossini’s life tell how even as an altar boy in his native Italy, he was tempted time and again to get a good taste of the wine used during Mass, and that years later he devoted plenty of time to describing in great detail the ingredients for a new salad he created, which came to be known as ‘salad Rossini’. He seemed to be more interested in this sort of thing than in giving an account of the premiere of his comic opera, Il Barbiere di Seviglia, which is universally recognised as one of the masterpieces of the genre.
“….What you will find more interesting than my opera is that I have just discovered a new salad, the recipe for which I am sending you forthwith: take some oil from Provence, English mustard, French vinegar, a little lemon, pepper and salt and mix it all up well, then add a few thin slices of truffle. The truffles give this seasoning a sort of halo, just the thing to send a gourmand into ecstasy. The Cardinal Secretary of State gave me his apostolic blessing for this discovery,” he wrote.
Marie-Henri Beyle, known to the world as Stendhal, in her own biography of Rossini, declares that the famous aria ‘di tanti palpiti’, the love song from Tancredi’s first act, which was possibly the most popular aria of its day, whistled and sung all over Europe, was also known as The Rice Song - because Rossini composed it in Venice while waiting for his risotto to cook. Cenerentola, which he composed in 1817, is not only the opera which upstaged another by the same name, written by Malta’s own Nicolo Isouard, but also gave us the aria ‘nacqui all’affanno e al pianto’, which Rossini dashed off in 15 minutes, sitting in a Roman tavern drinking with friends.
In Cenerentola, Don Magnifico dreams of copious amounts of chicken, sturgeon, all sorts of cakes, sweets and buns, and of rivers of wine and coffee, which will be his once his daughter marries the prince. References to food abound in Rossini’s operas. There is even a collection of piano pieces called Hors d’Oeuvres, which make reference to radishes, gherkins, anchovies, butter, figs, raisins, almonds and hazelnuts, and even to German küchen. Great chefs of the time, like Careme and Escoffier, created dishes in his honour, or dedicated them to his operas. These include tart William Tell, served on the occasion of the opera’s Paris premiere in 1829. This was an apple tart – of course – embellished with an apple pierced by a sugar arrow alongside a sugar crossbow. Cannelloni alla Rossini, stuffed with truffles and foie gras, and beef marrow risotto, were included in Escoffier’s recipe books and today they form part of international haute cuisine. Careme would send Rossini his favourite game pâte, and Rossini would reciprocate by writing arias for him. “Rossini is the only person who appreciates me,” Careme once wrote. “Maestro, I will only go to America if you accompany me,” he beseeched Rossini. While in Paris, the composer never missed an opportunity to indulge in turkey stuffed with truffles, which the gourmet Brillat-Savarin describes as the fashionable rage of the time. “Definitely, this dish must be shared by two, the turkey and I!!,” Rossini enthused. “I cried only thrice in my life – when my first opera turned out to be a fiasco, every time I heard the divine Paganini play, and when a turkey stuffed with truffles meant to be the meal during an outing fell overboard into the river.”
Many dishes are blessed with Rossini’s name, like tournedos Rossini, but his favourite dish was maccheroni alla Rossini. Caricaturists of the 19th century often depicted him holding a silver syringe or pastry-tube with which he used to prepare this dish. “It is very important to use only the best ingredients and utensils,” he instructed in 1866. “I only use earthenware pots made at the feet of the Vesuvius. The actual preparation of the maccheroni must be divided into four stages: (a) the actual cooking of the truffle-stuffed pasta, which should be done with the utmost care, (b) the preparation of the sauce, which should always be done in terracotta dishes, (c) the layering of the pasta in the Vesuvio earthenware, and only in Vesuvio earthenware, and (d) the granitatura with the best cheeses.” He prepared this dish for his most intimate friends during musical-gastronomical evenings, held in his house in the Chaussee d’Antin or in his villa in Passy. They would reciprocate by sending him the best products of the Italian provinces, ham from Seville, Stilton cheeses from England, nougat from Marseilles and royal sardines, to which he was very partial. “Oh most beloved Busca”, Rossini wrote to one friend, “the two Gorgonzola jewels you sent me have arrived in perfect condition. These two ripe cheeses bring back happy memories of your august mama who was the first to introduce me to the noble products of Gorgonzola. Oh happy days! Oh youth!”
All this food could not be digested without the appropriate wines. Rossini’s cellar was legendary, holding as it did his personally-bottled wine from the Canary Islands and the finest Bordeaux, white Johannesburg wine sent to him by Metternich and the best Madeira, Marsala wines and rare port sent to him by the King of Portugal, who was an ardent admirer of his. It is said that Baron Rothschild once sent him a gift of grapes from his vineyards. Rossini thanked him politely but added that he was not very partial to ”wine shaped like pills”. The Baron took the hint and sent him a barrel of his best Chateau Lafitte.
Many adjectives have been used to describe this most Italian of composers, but perhaps the best description comes from Rossini himself: “Next to doing nothing, I can think of no more delightful pastime than eating, eating properly I mean. Appetite is for the stomach what love is for the heart”.