A Well Seasoned Life is a voyage through the 1950s in a first-generation Italian-American household in which the preparation and eating of meals played a magical and central role. At the heart of the story is the author’s father, Gus O’Biso, who was born in Sicily in 1909 and immigrated to New Jersey in 1921. In a fresh and endearing twist to the traditional view of the Italian-American household, this jeweler in Manhattan’s diamond district discovered he was also a phenomenal cook when O’Biso’s mother went back to school and needed time to study. From that moment on Gus came home from work each evening--and oh how he cooked! It was he who became the proverbial glue that held the family firmly and lovingly together. While the central story is the way food, its preparation and its eating bound, strengthened and enlivened the O’Biso family, the book also traces both Gus’s passage and that of the world around him, offering the reader a tour through the twentieth century as seen through the prism of one man’s family. America’s stomach has long been nourished from the kitchens of immigrants and in these fond remembrances readers will find a cooking lesson filled with tips and techniques for turning fresh, natural ingredients into wonderful meals, as well as a glimpse of the resourcefulness and resiliency that characterized the immigrant experience in America. A Well Seasoned Life is also an unabashed call to return to the simple pleasures of cooking and eating together as a family. Readers who grew up in an era when this was common will find echoes of their childhoods, while others may take inspiration in providing for their own children.
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