In this video interview conducted by Elisabetta Moro, Mario Iaccarino retraces his personal and professional story beginning with childhood memories connected to food and family life. The narrative opens with an episode from the 1980s: before an athletics competition, at seven in the morning, he would have a plate of spaghetti with tomato sauce for breakfast. The choice was supported by his father Alfonso, who considered pasta an appropriate source of energy.
His childhood is described as immersed in the daily work related to the restaurant and food production: the night markets of Naples, purchasing seafood in Torre Annunziata, the summer preparation of San Marzano tomato preserves, the family vegetable garden, chickens, and aromatic herbs cleaned by hand. Pasta was collected directly from the pasta factories of Gragnano and Torre Annunziata. Direct contact with raw ingredients and seasonal rhythms forms the context of his upbringing.
Having grown up in the restaurant Don Alfonso 1890, he later chose to leave Italy for a period of professional training abroad. He spent thirteen years in England, France, Switzerland, and Germany, also attending hotel management school in Geneva. His experience included kitchen work, dining room service, reception, and hotel management. This period is described as preceding the widespread use of the internet and low-cost flights, when the distance from Italy was perceived as concrete and significant.
After returning to Italy, he describes the development of international projects based not only on reproducing recipes, but on transmitting a cultural model connected to Mediterranean identity and a sense of belonging.
Throughout the interview, several dishes linked to family memory emerge: strascinati, indicated as the origin of Sorrento-style cannelloni; broken ziti served with Genovese sauce, associated with the domestic gesture of breaking long pasta by hand; and ancient marinating practices mentioned in relation to international experiences and cultural exchanges. The interview outlines Mario Iaccarino’s path of professional formation and development, intertwining personal memory, family experience, and the international dimension of Mediterranean cuisine.
Interview by: Elisabetta Moro
Video by: Marino Niola, Elisabetta Moro
Video Editing by: Francesca D’Andrea
Document by: Mariangela Bianco
Subtitle ita/eng by:
Translation by: Mariangela Bianco
MedEatResarch – Center of Social Research on the Mediterranean Diet of the University of Naples Suor Orsola Benincasa, head by Marino Niola and Elisabetta Moro
Realized: 02/11/2025
