Delicooks

Christina Pirello.

How long have you been cooking?

I’ve been cooking all my life. At age 6 I asked my father to make me a stool in order to reach higher and be able to start cooking.

At age 10 I was cooking dinner myself.

I had my first job in a kitchen when I was 16 years old. And I'm completely in love with the pleasure of cooking.

But at 18 I left home to study, I started cooking just to make money and began eating badly. And then I got sick.

When my future husband, Robert, told me I could get better thanks to everything I could do in the kitchen, deep down inside, I realized that this was the right thing to do because I knew all about cooking and I knew what it meant .

I’m lucky that my mother, who’s Italian, has always encouraged me to cook. So the big advantage I had is that I didn’t have to learn, I knew it all from my childhood.

And it saddens me that there are so many people who don’t know how to cook. A lot of people, when they are sick, are then faced with the double challenge of learning about macrobiotic and having to learn how to cook. I was luckier when I got because I already knew one of them at least.

When I got better and I was cured of my illness, and saw the immense power of food, I could not stop thinking about how to make people see that  just cooking could make them better. But i still wasn’t  thinking about teaching.

Michio Kushi, my teacher then said to me “why not teach others how to cook?”

At first I thought ... How am I going to teach what everyone already knows how to do, but Michio said that this wasn’t  true, that many people do not know how to cook. And that if they didn’t even know how to cook, well then they would never understand why we cooked the way we do. And that’s how I got started in my career.

So you got into the macrobiotic diet because of an illness?

Yes, and that’s also why I started to study it.

How would you explain to a woman like my mother, a traditional woman who is only now learning to read, what the macrobiotic diet is?

Very easy. I would say that macrobiotics is to use whole foods, whole, unprocessed, in season foods, and prepare and personalize them for your lifestyle. That’s it.

And how would you convince her to try it out?

The first thing I would do is ask her how she feels. If she said fine but my back hurts, I think I'm getting old ... I would say that our way of cooking is a source of life, energy ...

I doubt my mother would understand ...

Many people don’t understand. My job is simply to give information. If people get the information and put it to good use, well that’s great. The problem is that more and more people are not feeling well and are seeing the macrobiotic way as a way of getting better, so my job is getting easier.

As people like your mother find out which things are healthier, they even become more interested in themselves because they want to know what to do. We’re discovering that food can prevent illness and nobody wants to be sick! I can tell your mother that eating more vegetables will make her feel better and she might still not want to.

The advice I give to people who cannot or will not take up this type of diet is that they should eat more vegetables and feel what happens in their bodies.

Is this type of diet accompanied by a change of mentality, a change of life?

Maybe, but it need not be like that for those not interested in the philosophy behind it. At first it isn’t really important that people understand. I didn’t. When I started I knew nothing. I did it because of my future husband and just to try out. But when I saw the effects food had, then I wanted to understand what was going on. So first comes the food, and then you start to understand why.

Do you think that striving to understand it more is accompanied by an openness of mind, a search for something else?

Absolutely, yes.

People don’t just go walking down the street and suddenly think to themselves that today I’m going macrobiotic!

It sometimes happens that a friend, relative or, in my case, my future husband, is following this type of diet ... in the case of my husband, for instance, he has never gotten sick, and yet his whole family has cancer problems.

When you have a problem like this you can be sitting in the doctor's office and suddenly you start reading and you say to yourself that you need a change.

Life speaks to you ...

And there are people that life doesn’t speak to, or rather they don’t listen But life is actually  talking all the time, but so often we don’t listen.

The fear of change ...

Exactly! I can be very afraid, for example, that my friends might leave me, that my family might laugh at what I'm doing and since we are all social beings, we think a change might isolate us. It's terrible!

How does macrobiotics, with its philosophy, view other disciplines in the world from the point of view of food.

It depends ... Some macrobiotic teachers are not open both to other disciplines. Many of them think that it is not important to do ayurvedics, or practice vegetarianism ... if you eat a balanced diet, always keeping in sight a philosophy of balance, well for them that’s macrobiotics.

I understand macrobiotics involves a certain awareness, that is, I do this and I do so for a reason.

Yes, yes, we always think about what effect this food will have on us as human beings and also at a social, ecological level.

Do you believe that a macrobiotic diet could be programmed so as to get the things you want out of life?

Yes, of course. Many people, after practicing macrobiotics for a long time believe it helps them do what they want to do in life. Aveline Kushi, Michio Kushi's wife, said that you cook to create the husband you want out of the one you already have.

When did you make the leap from teaching courses to having a television program nationwide in a country like the U.S.?

I've always done cooking demonstrations. From childhood, when I saw Julia Child on the screen I thought it was wonderful that someone was cooking on TV. One day, after a cooking class and while watching a cooking show on TV, my husband said I should do that. I said if you find out how, I will.

But I never thought I’d find a way! We never talked about it again.

Two years later, after a class, 3 people came up to me. My husband had invited 3 TV producers to interview me! I set gave them a cooking show and I told them the truth, that I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to do it! From there I wrote my first book and it all started from there. I never thought I would succeed, and less even with macrobiotic food, but in January 2012 I will begin my tenth season.

Do you usually bring guests to your program?

Sometimes, yes, but it’s usually just me.

Your husband, I see, has opened 2 important doors in your life ... Any more?

He really saved my life. I have always thought that I have the vision and he does the work. We also have a travel company and he is the one who is always thinking and devising new ways to approach it.

And in this travel company ... where do you fit in?

My husband’s vision is often brought about because I complain about something, because there’s something I don’t like or consider stupid ... Once we were in the Virgin Islands lying on the beach and I said there is nothing to eat, I'm tired of pasta with broccoli! So he said let's set up a travel company where people can eat well. I thought he was crazy. This was in the 90's. And right now, even though our groups are s,mall, in the region of 20 people we go to the Caribbean, Italy, Croatia, maybe to Spain in the future ...

I contract a chef and we both cook. The holidays are pure relaxation, no study or classes ... we usually book a villa, we never go to hotels, it’s just like being at home, we make breakfast and dinner and look for vegan places to eat and places to see.

Typically our customers go home happy, rested and healthy.

What should I do if I want to go?

We might be goping to Tuscany in July ...

Do you have a website?

Yes! http://www.christinacooks.com/

And everybody’s welcome? ...

Yes, yes ... all sorts of people come, vegans, non vegans, macrobiotic ... and when we go out to eat, if someone wants meat, they have meat. But when I cook, I do macrobiotics.

Some may ask for meat at first, after a few days they’ll have given up..

But ... does macrobiotic cooking, in general, reject meat?

No. Sometimes, some people do, but in general, no. 99%, no.

I’m meeting with some friends who are depressed. What would you prepare to make them made happy?

Make a delicious vegan meal - macrobiotic: lots of oil, some salt, some fried food, salad and chocolate.

Some ingredients? please ...

Artichokes, grain salad, tempura with a little salt to make your friends more active and salted nuts.

And to drink?

Beer and wine ... sangria.

Sangria?

Sure! Sangria without sugar, with fruit.

What about alcohol. Isn’t it bad for us?

Actually, nothing really is in small quantities. If people drink every day and in large quantities it is harmful to the liver.

It is true that many people who eat good quality food no longer feel the need to drink much alcohol. Many times you drink alcohol because the food isn’t good.

Don’t you think that alcohol, like other substances, takes you out from reality, lifts your feet off the ground?

Only in excess. Everything in moderation is admissible.

Can I give you a list of emotional states and then you suggest a food for each?

Yes.

Sad: Millet

Angrty: Arugula and Endive

Euphoric: Rice.

Content :Chocolate.

Are you sure? What if I'm already happy. Will chocolate make me even happier?

Yes, yes.

Stressed: Pumpkin.

My life is going nowhere: Barley.

I have no sexual desire: Green leaves.

I want sex all the time: Don’t change anything, it's perfect.

Loneliness: Quinoa and greens.

I can’t control myself: Rice

Too much work : Give up work.

I don’t care about anything: Corn and carrots.

I need to change jobs: Generally, any vegetable  will help you think clearer                       

Yesterday, on the course, someone said something interesting ... that food is sexy ... How do you define sexy food?

If we canmake food attractive, appetizing, that looks good, then we are making it sexier for others. If the food we make is boring, it is not sexy. We also need to teach with passion.

And will that arouse sexual appetite?

Yes!

Do you think that everything we are, we think ... and at the time of cooking, we add it to our food?

Yes.

So if we are feeling bad, we’d better not cook ...

Yes!

Just some water?

You’d be best going out.

Do you like Spain?

Yes Last year I came and I wanted to see more, but this year has been incredible. It is beautiful, and Barcelona, and the Ramblas ... I love it.

How about Spanish food?

Hahaha ... it is a bit heavy. I like lighter food.

Yesterday you said that people are physically and emotionally like the food they eat ... what would you say about the Spanish?

I see them quite well because their food is very natural, not processed, not so much as in other countries. Germany. Italy, France, Spain ... are countries where food is still an important value.

And if we apply this principle to different countries according to what they eat ... for example:

India

Lots of Ghee, because their hair is very shiny and sometimes a little sticky, but they eat lots of vegetables and that gives them a good skin, and the people are not very stocky, generally.

South America.

Tomatoes, spices and a lot of drama, precisely because of the spices. They also have a very beautiful skin because they consume olive oil.

Black Africa.

A large part of the African population eats very little, and the quality is very poor. International aid they are receiving is not enough to help them be healthier. In their eyes, for example, ou can see they don’t enjoy good health.

And Europe?

In the north, they consume more milk and cream. In the Mediterranean people are healthier because they consume more oil, more vegetables and get more sun.

So what brought such a busy woman like you to Spain?

Yes, I am a very busy woman because I always go wherever I am invited. I came to Barcelona invited by Esmaca and thought it was a very interesting opportunity, too. For me it is a challenge in a country like Spain, where people eat in a very traditional way, to get people to adjust their diet to eat more healthily. And I like challenges!

Will you return to Esmaca?

Yes, if they invite me ... We'll have to see what the opinion polls say.