Film Screening of Quanto Basta (As Needed, 2018) directed by Francesco Falaschi

The “Week of Italian Cuisine 2020” begins with a special screening linked to a special birthday. November 16, 2020 marks the 10th anniversary of the Mediterranean Diet in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Happy Birthday, Mediterranean Diet! You keep us healthy!

The film Quanto Basta (As Needed), set in Tuscany, narrates of food, cooking, and friendship. Chef Arturo, because of a legal entanglement caused by his anger issues, is sentenced to community service in a facility for young people with autism. Here he meets Guido, a young man with Asperger syndrome who is passionate about cooking. The film is also a homage to food writer Pellegrino Artusi and his Science in the Kitchen and the Art of Eating Well (1891), especially Artusi’s recipe # 506 Baccalà alla Fiorentina (Salt Cod Florentine Style) that Guido makes to enter a cooking competition. The title Quanto Basta (As Needed) refers to the use of “q.b.” (“quanto basta” / “as needed”) as a term to indicate measurements that initially proves hard to grasp for Guido. While traveling and cooking together, Arturo and Guido embrace friendship while reinforcing the philosophy of cooking based on simplicity and taste. As Arturo states: “Il mondo ha più bisogno di un perfetto spaghetto al pomodoro che di un branzino al cioccolato. / The world has greater need for a perfect spaghetti with tomato sauce than a chocolate covered sea bass.”

For information about accessing this event contact gmeneche@wisc.edu.

This event is organized in collaboration with the Department of French and Italian, the Center for European Studies, and the Food Studies Network at the University of Wisconsin- Madison, together with Casa Artusi (Forlimpopoli, Italy), and the Italian Cultural Institute in Chicago.