Q: You have had the opportunity to live in many different places. What led you to pursue each opportunity?

A: My background is quite varied. I could say I’ve had several careers. I had the fundamental sort of desire to do—what I like to do. 

Q: You’ve lived in so many different places—how has your experience been different in each place as a Roman immigrant?

A: From a flavor point of view, I was exposed to new things all the time. I remember the first time I ate fish in a banana leaf in the countryside of Cambodia. My head just exploded. … Or the first time I had chiles en nogada in Puebla, Mexico. Another explosion. …  Every place taught me new ingredients, new flavors, and different ways of thinking about food. Wherever I went, I tried to understand the life of the people through food.

My grandmother’s family had moved [to the US] in the 30s. … They invited me for a family meal in Delaware. I met 60 aunts and cousins I had never seen in my life and they prepared an Italian meal. I could not recognize the food that was there… Over time, I learned how to appreciate Italian American cuisine as its own cuisine, [one that’s] related to Italian cuisine, but in 150 years, developed differently.  

Living here for 26 years, I [haven’t] become any less Roman. 

Q: You mentioned that you’re more comfortable traveling to all these places because of all the languages you speak, read, and write. What was your process in learning them, and what compels you to learn them? How did it change your ability to interact with people?

A: I learned English in school. I thought it was important to learn [Spanish and French] to travel around the world. I started studying Chinese and Japanese and [moved] to China for two years to improve it. As a journalist, I started traveling a lot in the Middle East and in Southeast Asia, [and] decided to learn Arabic and Vietnamese. I learned Portuguese because I was in love with Brazilian music, and still am. In my 50s, I decided to start this project in Poland. It was ethnographic and I felt I needed to have access to the language, to read material and speak with people. Speaking different languages shows to people from other places that you’re making an effort to communicate with them. You have a better sense of what goes around on you.

Q: I wanted to talk about your sense of self expression. Starting from your fashion sense, to your social media presence, to your queer identity, to your politics. You’re bold and open. What constitutes your sense of self?

A: My sense of self is the result of all my experiences over time. I’m turning 60 next month. I feel I’m still growing and changing. When I was younger, I thought when you get in your 40s and your 50s, … you know who you are and what you want to be. [But now] I feel entitled to change and have new experiences, try new things. 

Now I’m trying different ways of writing. At the nice age of 60, I think it’s time to move more toward writing something accessible to the general public. 

Q: I have found that you have a very informed sense of politics. What life experiences have informed your politics and led you to write the books that you have?

A: My political view has been shaped by my life experiences. Growing up in Italy in the 70s and 80s, students were all leftist, and you have certain ideas. Then you go and live in a socialist place and … become a little bit more realistic and cynical. I went to Cambodia in the 90s and saw the devastation brought by the Vietnam War, the presence of Americans. I spent a week with the guerrillas in Burma and saw how difficult it was for them to get food. These experiences left me with the central belief that we have to strive towards a more fair, and just world, not just society. Each society cannot develop in isolation; it’s impossible. It’s important to follow what happens [worldwide]

In my book, Gastronativism, I wanted to show how food can be used to create divisions between us and them, between who belongs to the community and who doesn’t. It’s been shaped by this sense that we need to strive towards justice, but also look at that in the context of what happens in other places. 

Now I’m very happy to be able to work towards projects that are much more political in that sense. I’m working on the idea of a book on food as a weapon of war. Hopefully, after all these years, I can bring back my experience and background in political science and journalism and sort of fuse it with my experiences as a food writer and a food scholar. Everything seems to be coming together, serendipitously.

Q: Do you think your presence as a food media person is political or is rooted in politics?

A: That’s the way I look at food. Of course, I love food. I love cooking. I love talking about food. But at the same time, I cannot set aside what food means in other environments. 

this interview has been edited for conciseness and clarity