Granai della Memoria

Peppe Barra is one of the protagonists of the revival of traditional Neapolitan folk music and theatre, which in his performances he cleverly contaminated with modern rhythms of the Mediterranean. He is a masterful interpreter of songs, tammurriate, and theatrical poetry. He was born in Rome on July 24, 1944, from Neapolitan parents, who were both actors. The mother, Concetta, a prominent actress of twentieth-century popular theater, introduced him at the performing arts. His father Giulio, a variety artist, represents his role model in the kitchen. But the real source of inspiration of all his culinary memories is the maternal grandmother. The most vivid memories are evoked by the olfactory memory of the "magic sauces" that her grandmother prepared on the hearth, in the house overlooking the sea in Procida, or on the makeshift stove that was prepared for this purpose in the dressing rooms of the theaters during his mother's tour; but also the aroma that came from the kitchens down the little streets of Naples and that marked the seasons in postwar. Pasta and peas or broad beans in Spring, the smell of canned jam and tomato paste dried on the roofs of houses, in Summer. That tomato concentrate rendered the taste of Summer also available in Winter and it was the essential ingredient for ragout, the one seasoned with love and brown, to be eaten only with ziti broken by hand, which Peppe had the privilege to taste at the house of celebrities such as Eduardo de Filippo and Roberto Murolo. Passionate cook and lover of "true, beautiful, good Italian food," Barra strongly criticizes the Nouvelle Cuisine and television broadcasts that disturb the palate and the spirit of traditional flavours. The kitchen - he says - is especially alchemy.