When I arrived at Giuliano Hazan’s home in Sarasota, the first thing he did was offer me a cappuccino and a plate of biscotti. I’d eaten breakfast on the drive down from Tampa, so I was not at all hungry.
But when Giuliano Hazan offers you an Italian breakfast, you take it.
Giuliano is the only child of Marcella Hazan [pronounced mar-CHE-la ha-SAN], the Italian-born food writer and cooking teacher who is credited with popularizing Italian food in the United States. Marcella and her husband, Victor Hazan, raised Giuliano mostly in New York City. When Giuliano moved to Florida’s Gulf Coast as an adult, his parents later followed. Marcella died in 2013; Victor still lives on Longboat Key.
While Marcella’s legacy lives on in her cookbooks, a documentary film and a Smithsonian project that’s in the works, Giuliano has established himself as an Italian cooking authority in his own right. The author of several cookbooks, he teaches Italian cooking classes on his YouTube channel, at his home in Sarasota and at his cooking schools throughout Italy, where he leads culinary tours with his wife, writer Lael Hazan. Forbes.com named his culinary excursions among its 5 Top Cooking And Foodie Vacations In Italy For 2019.
I recently sat down with Giuliano at his kitchen table. Between bites of biscotti and sips of cappuccino, we discussed how his mother got her big break in America, his own career in Italian cooking and advice for making better Italian food at home.
You can read more about Giuliano Hazan in the fall issue of Forum, the magazine of Florida Humanities.
