Un piatt’ da minestra in sacocia

The long-time cook of the Concorezzo school, grandmother Luigia keeps in a bag the photographs of a whole lifetime.

Grandmother Luigia is a real institution in Concorezzo. She is the long-time cook of the school: I think anyone over forty has, at least once, tasted one of her dishes. She is so well known that a man, running into her by chance in the street, asked her whether she had a bowl of soup in her “sacocia” (her pocket)! She tells this anecdote to everyone, but admits that, having cooked for so very many children, she could not remember who the man who had stopped her was.

In a bag behind her wheelchair Luigia hides some photographs that she pulls out like treasure. They had been taken of her when she still worked at the school. In those simple images is gathered the whole work of a lifetime. We should remember this lesson, especially now that we take thousands of pictures that often mean nothing, forgotten in the vast memories of our smartphones. When we are old, will we still be able to show our photos and our memories to our grandchildren?

Luigia also told me an amusing memory about her work at the school. Usually, in the morning, the local police would stop by the canteen for a snack. She would make them a sandwich without ham — she is keen to specify — because otherwise there would not have been enough for her children. One day a policeman asked her for something to drink because the sandwich simply would not go down… so Luigia went to her trusted supplier to ask whether he had anything for her, and they settled on a bottle of wine.

When we are old, will we still be able to show our memories to our grandchildren?

Thinking of the times we live in now, such a thing would be impossible. Yet it is lovely to recall that there was once a time when everything was simpler and a little more genuine. Genuine like Mrs Luigia’s cooking.

Collected by Riccardo Beretta · AVO Concorezzo volunteer