Sight is absolutely the favourite sense of Mimmo Jodice, though he says “the exercise of seeing predisposes the taste and amplifies the food pleasure”. He remembers his youth in the ancient centre of Naples during the hard postwar period and some rituals linked to the household hearth such as the smell of coffee beans and the foods of the feasts. In his memory there are the vivid images of the hen sacrificed on the occasion of Sunday lunch, and those of the person who sacrifices Easter lamb in the neighbourhood of Sanità. Above all else, he regrets the periodicity of food of the past, but his madeleine still remains bread dressed in oil and salt, a very simple dish that he still eats for breakfast. The Mediterranean is his source of inspiration. Thinking of it as the cradle of the Mediterranean Diet, it invokes the sun, the sea, the scents, the land, the old olive tree groves that seem to him sculptures, the vineyards, barrels, red wine, the grain feasts, but he also thinks of the symbols of Mediterranean foods in the Baroque still-life paintings that inspired his photographic series Eden, and another on Mediterranean breads, planned with friend Predrag Matvejević, but remained unfinished.
Interview by: Helga SanitàVideo and editing by: Davide Mancini
Subtitles by: Maria Funiciello
Document by: Helga Sanità Translation by: Rossella Galletti
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: 11-03-2013