Italian chef keeping a watchful eye

Food is an important thread that links us to the past, says Maria Pia De Razza-Klein. Picture / Carolyn Robertson

It was during a lively discussion on the merits of making bread the Italian way, that the wolf bounded from the shadows. It had been a lurking presence, slung between the ample decolletage of restaurateur Maria Pia De Razza-Klein. Now she learns forward and dangles the silver wolf necklace dangerously close.

"It's the symbol of the women from my town. Like the mother wolf they protect their family - you have to be careful if you threaten her."

She cups her hand, as if holding something more tender than a ball of dough, and suddenly clamps her fists shut with a sharp intake of breath. Clearly you don't mess with the women from Lecca.

It's refreshing to find a chef who openly despises the "food in a minute" conveniences that crowd supermarket shelves. Indeed, she suggests abolishing some varieties, if only for the sake of the bambini. Where De Razza-Klein comes from, you learn how to twist minuscule squares of tortellini on your little finger under the guidance of 30 Italian women.

"We should revel in the joy of cooking, even of simple dishes, and cook with real ingredients which come from the land and sea," she says.

For the past four years, she has revelled in dishing up authentic Italian fare at her celebrated Trattoria in Wellington. It must have been hard to adjust to Wellington's climate after the scorching heat of Lecca in Puglia, nestled in the heel of Italy's boot.

She misses the markets - ordering fish over the phone is just not the same - but what's more irksome is using a timer to test a dish. As a founding member of the local chapter of the Slow Food Movement, it's as sinful as not tasting the food. "My mother would put her hand in the oven to test the temperature for the bread. She was a proponent of intuitive cooking, there was no measuring."

Her book, Mangiare Italiano, contains many of her mother's recipes, and it's the first time they've been documented.

"I would get a list of ingredients from my mother, but they were never any instructions. It's about learning the right balance and that comes from many years at the stove top."

There are as many pictures of her family as glossy photos of the delectable food from all regions. Dishes like Ragu Alla Bolognese promote the slow cook philosophy but don't even think of substituting spaghetti for fresh spinach tagliatelle. Nothing is lost in translation; Puglia's colourful history weaving its way through Maria Pia's charmed life.

Daughter of a lawyer father, she learned to cook from family and servants before studying macrobiotics in Florence, cooking at a Steiner school and teaching in Emilia-Romagna. She has been recognised by the Italian Government as one of the great Italian restaurateurs of the world.

Italians love a good festival and the celebration in honour of the Madonna of Leuca is a lavish affair - a highlight being local fishermen carrying the hefty Madonna statue down to the shore and heading out for the catch of the season. It's customary to stage a banquet at nightfall and De Razza-Klein's grandmother was always the supreme host; serving her guests 15 elaborate dishes at one seating, followed by endless bowls of fresh fruit. It's the kind of meal that protects the joy of eating forever.

"Food is an important thread that links us to the past, and I have connected it to my present, and my future. As I see it, my cooking skills and ideas will always come to me naturally, because they are my heritage."