Marina Orsini: gourmet from mother to daughter

“And you, your recipes? Will you one day present them? » Since Marina Orsini hosts 5 chefs in my kitchen, viewers ask her her cooking secrets. To those curious, it offers Greedy !a book bringing together the culinary specialties of his family. The Press met her on the set of her show.

Veronique Larocque
The Press

Recipe book or souvenir album? The question arises when leafing through the work of some 250 pages signed Marina Orsini. The explanations for preparing lasagna, chicken cacciatore, trifle, stuffed olives or pot-au-feu are juxtaposed with photos of Christmas parties, trips to Italy or a young Marina in primary school.

“It’s a bit of a gourmet biography”, sums up the host, who receives The Press in his tiny dressing room between filming two episodes of 5 chefs in my kitchen.

In Greedy !, Marina Orsini does not content herself with presenting the recipes that marked her childhood and her adult life. She talks about her family. From her father and the Orsini clan who left Italy to immigrate to Canada in the 1950s. From her mother who, she writes, “bequeathed to her her taste for the pleasures of the table”.

Marine Orsini considers herself “privileged” to come from such a close-knit family that she considers her aunts like mothers and her cousins ​​like brothers and sisters. “My family is really the basis of my life. [Ce livre]it was a way of paying homage to him”, she says.

Because for Marina Orsini, each recipe presented is a bit “a layer of [sa] life “. “Yes, it’s cooking, but it’s also memories impregnated in me, in my heart, in my head”, confides the one who has often been appended with the qualifier “gourmet” (hence the title of the book).

His mother’s kitchen

Going through the little book in which she writes down her recipes, the favorite actress of Quebecers easily selected the ones she wanted to share with the public. “It was clear that I wanted to put my mother’s turkey, she gives as an example. At Christmas, she always combined Italy and Quebec. There’s also his lasagna, which is an amazing deal. We did it at Ricardo over two episodes, 25 years ago. A segment of this show was also shown on Everybody talks about itlast Sunday, when Marina Orsini was one of Guy A. Lepage’s guests.

“My mother cooked wonderfully well. She was very influenced by my Italian grandmother Orsini, who came to live with my parents at the beginning [de leur relation] “, says the facilitator.

His mother also learned a lot from watching his father’s aunts prepare meals. “They were absolutely outstanding cooks. »

For the facilitator, write Greedy ! “was quite a trip in [son] past “. By immersing herself in her culinary memories, she not only rediscovered her mother’s recipes, but also those of her aunt Marguerite, her cousin Josée and Nana, the grandmother of her ex-husband, Serge Postigo, who considered her own granddaughter. Marina Orsini devotes a chapter of her book to each of them, while a section rather presents her favorites inspired by her friends, her travels or her former lovers. “Without realizing it, it became a book where I pay tribute to five women,” she notes.

A second family

To give life to this work, which she dedicates in particular to her son Thomas, Marina Orsini turned to her second family: the team of the show 5 chefs in my kitchen.

The host could not imagine a better accomplice than Marc Maulà. “Marc is our head chef in the kitchen. He’s a great food stylist. » When the viewers of 5 chefs in my kitchen don’t see him on screen as a guest chef, he works behind the cameras preparing the dishes. “It’s really him, the head of everything we see on the show”, summarizes Marina Orsini.

It is therefore surrounded by Marc Maulà, but also by the set photographer Rosalie-Anne Lavoie Bolduc, the chef Denis Drolet and the stylist Sylvie Lacaille that Marina Orsini has transformed her family memories into a book to consult.

“It’s really a lot of work, a recipe book. It’s crazy ! It was spread over a year, ”says Marina Orsini. Because the steps are numerous: rewrite the recipes, test them more than once, cook them, take photos…

To be well settled, the team rented the studio where they shoot 5 chefs in my kitchen. When passing from The Presswe also had the impression of seeing a loop come full circle: the show was devoted to two recipes taken from Greedy !.

“I’m so proud of this book,” she confides at the end of the interview, slipping that she thinks a lot about her mother who was, like her, a big foodie.

And what would the latter say about this project? “My mom would be so proud too. »

Greedy !

Marina Orsini

Quebec America

248 pages

Thomas’ favorite spaghetti sauce

Among the fifty recipes found in the book Greedy !Marina Orsini chose two that she cooked on the set of her show 5 chefs in my kitchen. His selection criteria? “We said to ourselves: we have to find something simple, which is accessible and that everyone likes”, summarizes the host, who made her first choice on her son Thomas’ favorite spaghetti sauce recipe. “He even eats it for breakfast,” says Marina Orsini in Greedy !.

Preparation: 45 minutes
Cooking: 2 hrs 30 mins
Yield: 4 L (16 cups)

Ingredients

• 125 ml (1/2 cup) butter
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) or more olive oil
• 2 large onions, chopped
• 3 medium carrots, diced small
• 4 stalks of celery, in small cubes
• 2 green peppers, diced small
• 375 g (3/4 lb) ground beef
• 375 g (3/4 lb) ground veal
• 375 g (3/4 lb) ground pork
• 45 ml (3 tbsp.) homemade or store-bought Italian spice mix
• 3 bay leaves
• 250 to 375 ml (1 to 1/2 cup) boiling water
• 680 ml (3 cans of 24 oz) tomatoes with Italian spices
• 156 ml (1 can of 5.5 oz) garlic tomato paste
• 250 ml (1 cup) parmesan cheese, finely grated
• 250 ml (1 cup) Italian breadcrumbs

Preparation

1. In a large pot over medium-high heat, melt the butter with a good dollop of olive oil. Add the vegetables and sweat for 8 minutes.
2. Add the meats and cook for 10 minutes.
3. Season with Italian spices and bay leaves.
4. Pour boiling water to cover, then cook for 10 minutes.
5. Add the 3 cans of tomatoes and the tomato paste. Stir well.
6. Add parmesan cheese and breadcrumbs.
7. Simmer over low heat for 2 hours, stirring regularly to prevent the bottom from sticking.
8. Serve over your favorite pasta. Add a drizzle of oil, if desired.

Date, Cranberry and Cardamom Squares

Marina Orsini loves date squares! On show 5 chefs in my kitchen and in his book Greedy !it presents a reinvented and nutritious version of this treat in which cardamom brings a surprising touch of exoticism.

Preparation: 25 minutes
Cooking: 30 minutes
Yield: 12 to 16 squares

Ingredients for the filling

• 1 L (4 cups) pitted dates, chopped
• 250 ml (1 cup) of water
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) dried cranberries
• Juice and zest of 1 lemon
• 5 ml (1 tsp) ground cardamom

Ingredients for the crispy mixture

• 250 ml (1 cup) butter
• 250 ml (1 cup) brown sugar
• 500 ml (2 cups) quick-cooking rolled oats
• 250 ml (1 cup) ground almonds
• 250 ml (1 cup) coarsely chopped nuts (pecans and walnuts)
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) chia seeds
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) flax seeds
• 60 ml (1/4 cup) pumpkin seeds
• 5 ml (1 tsp) ground cardamom
• 1 pinch of salt

Preparation

1. In a saucepan, place the dates, pour the water, add the dried cranberries, the juice and zest of a lemon, then the cardamom.
2. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer gently for 10 minutes to rehydrate the dates and cranberries. Let cool a little, the time to make the crispy mixture.
3. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C).
4. In a bowl, combine all the remaining ingredients.
5. Butter a 9-inch (23 cm) square pan, pour in half of the crispy mixture.
6. Add the cooled filling, then top with the rest of the crispy mixture.
7. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown. To serve.