Interview with Delia Morinelli, Ancel and Margaret Keys’s cook

Delia Morinelli: the cook of the Mediterranean diet

Delia Morinelli, the old housekeeper of Ancel and Margaret Keys, grants an interview full of memories about recipes and culinary tradition. Delia worked at Keys home for many years and contributed to the achievement of the objective of Professor Keys: to know the elixir of long life through the typical dishes of Campania. During the interview, Delia describes all the dishes that Ancel and Margaret learned from her, she remembers their interest for Cilento’s traditions and reveals the skill of Mrs. Keys in the kitchen. Delia tells the authenticity of food that Keys favored, recipes that they worshiped and reveals that the Professor ate every evening two dried figs. Pasta, fish, little meat, a spoon of olive oil per day and lots of vegetables and legumes: this is the secret of longevity handed down by Ancel and Margaret Keys, her employers but mostly “masters of life”.


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Mediterranean granaries, curated by SOB University in Naples

Mediterranean granaries, curated by SOB University in Naples

On the 16th November 2010 The Mediterranean diet was nominated Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The MedEatResearch, Centre of Social Research on the Mediterranean Diet by University Suor Orsola Benincasa in Naples, directed by Marino Niola and Elisabetta Moro, was founded in 2012 to nurture, promote and spread Italian food heritage and to boost cultural exchanges on wines and foods from various- Mediterranean countries. Within this project the specific archive Granaries of Memory was created to present the results of the researches conducted by the Centre.
Universita degli Studi Suor Orsola Benincasa

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