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I don’t speak at many conferences, but in the spring of 2005 I went to Salt Lake City to speak to the Utah Association of Family & Consumer Sciences. The next day a colleague of mine took me to dinner at the home Liz and Steve Edmunds outside Park City. It was the first time I’d met Liz, and she told me all about a family cookbook her children wanted her to write. The more I heard, the more intrigued I became. It was so much more than a recipe book. I became entranced with the good that Liz’s ideas and strategies for family dinnertime could do for other families and hence society in general. And I found research to back up the importance of time together around the dinner table. Joseph Califano Jr., chairman and president of the national Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse, says that “the family dinner is more powerful than any law we can pass, any punishment we can level” for protecting children against risky behavior. “Parental engagement is a critical weapon in the fight against substance abuse,” he says. “If I could wave a wand, I’d make everyone have family dinners.” When Liz and Steve first came to Oregon to meet with us on this book project, I introduced her to my other business, Mamma Ro—handmade ceramic dinnerware we import from a small family business in Italy. The goal of the Pierallini family, with whom I have been working for 30 years, is La Vita Vera—“the true life.” This means having family meals together where everyone talks, bonds, shares, and enjoys good food. Liz and Steve have since met the Pierallinis in Lucca, Italy, and experienced La Vita Vera personally. That is the goal of this cookbook—to help you create La Vita Vera in your home. Liz gives you a template to do so. But she is just a facilitator. It is up to you to put it into practice. Use her template as is or add to it with your own favorite recipes or foods that work for your family’s individual needs. Liz is passionate about family mealtime, but admits that it takes a lot of effort in the beginning and a commitment. It will get easier after you have made the recipes a few times. Someone in the family has to be the leader and take the responsibility of making family mealtime happen. And that person could be YOU! As publisher, I dedicate this book to families throughout the world, in their efforts to mold respectful, thinking, caring, loving, nourished human beings, generation after generation . . . one meal at a time.
Pati Palmer
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MESSAGE FROM THE PUBLISHER