SUN 23 JUL :: 23:00-01:00 UTC
19:00-21:00 new york :: 24/07 09:00-11:00 sydney :: 01:00-03:00 rome
A food_radio network event in celebration of the 200th birthday of Marco Pollini,
the discoverer of Spaghetti! Hosted in New York by the August Sound Coalition.
Alexis Baghat
August Sound Coalition
free103point9
Radio Cooks & Diners:
Alexis Baghat, Sophea Lerner, Amanda Hickman, Lee Azzarello, Carrie Dashow, Stephanie Rothenburg, Howard Huang, Lauren Rosati, Kunal Gupta, Stevphen Shukaitis
Who is Marco Pollini?
The bio below comes from the book, “TRUE DISCOVERER OF SPAGHETTI” by Carlo
di Napoli
“My uncle, Marco di Napoli (more popularly known as ‘Marco Pollini’ was born in Naples on July 22nd, 1806. At age 8, Marco ran away from his father, Paolo and mother, Maria, in order to avoid an apprenticeship in carpentry. He first made his way to Rome where he lived as a beggar boy and thief. In Rome, he mysteriously struck a friendship with Meister Leopold Gottfried, the youngest son of Baron Gottfried Wilhelm Sommerau-Beekch and Klara von Summer of Vienna. Meister Leopold brought young Marco back to the Gottfried Castle in Austria, where Marco worked in the kitchen and was educated in the German and Latin tongues and initiated into the craft of Viennese pastries. Marco worked at the Gottfried Castle until his 15th year, when Leopold arranged for Marco to work as a cook for his brother, the Archbishop of Olumouc (in present-day Czech Republic). In his 21st year, Marco again ran away, having struck up an affair with Sophia Erdmann, an understudy for the role of Incoronozione Di Poppea with the Brno Opera. He followed Sophia to Brno, only to have his heart broken.
Embarrassed by having left the Archbishop for unrequitted love, he made his way back to Vienna to seek Leopold’s assistance. As it turns out, Leopold was himself fleeing Vienna and a scandal with an opera singer. En route to Trieste to catch a boat for his exile to Tunis and the estate of his mad uncle, Geunther Gottfried, Leopold encountered Marco again. The old Meister insisted that Marco come along as his companion, and the two set off for Africa together on the Greek sailing ship, Artemis. Attacked by Corsican pirates, the they never arrived in Tunis, but they did both make it to Africa separately. The pirates, quite enamored by young Marco, brought him back as a friend to their home-port in Morocco, and safely dropped off Leopold in the friendly port of Tripoli.
Marco began working as a cook on a pirate vessel, where he acquired the nickname “Pollini” for his chicken-like gait. Marco lived the pirate life for two gay decades until one tragic day a barrage of English cannon fire left him washed up on the Rock of Gibraltar. For days, he hid from the sun in a cave and prayed to the Virgin Mary for divine intercession to save his life. On the seventh day of his suffering, the Goodship Providence, en route from Marseilles to New York, saw the smoke of his fire and sent a dingy to retrieve the lost soul. While a French ship, the Providence was packed full of Austrian and Czech’s supporters of the revolution of 1848, including the composer, John Balatka. Balatka, it happens, knew Marco’s renown for Viennese pastries and urged Marco to come with him in Chicago. And so Marco made his way West.
Like many immigrants, Marco Pollini was prone for the madness of the 1849 Gold Rush. En route for Chicago, he encountered a wagon train of German prospectors who decided to bring along this wild old pirate as their cook. It could be argued that Marco was bad luck, for their wagon train was attacked by Mexican bandits not far from Santa Fe: Marco and his friend Klaus were the only survivors. They wandered the desert for three days. As on Gibraltar, Marco prayed to the Virgin Mary for intercession, and his prayers were again fulfilled by the appearance of a crazy horseman named Victor Richelieu, the messenger of San Francisco opium lord Chung Fat. Richelieu, a polyglot, born to French missionaries in Indochine, became fast friends with Marco and Klaus, and brought them back to “Big City” - as San Francisco was then called by its Chinese inhabitants.
Here in Big City, the two wanderers parted ways: Klaus set off to prospect his substantial claims (since he had the deeds to the claims of several companions) and Marco worked as a baker of Viennese pastries in the home of Chung Fat.
It was here, in Chung Fat’s kitchens, that Marco first discovered Chinese “la mein” and learned the various ways to make noodles.
After some four years, Providence again visited Marco: Klaus had found gold! Tons of it! Klaus gifted Marco a token of gratitude which was more than enough to return to New York in regal style. In New York, Marco settled into the Italian community had begun to take shape on the Lower East Side, and with his new riches he established the famous “La mein Trattoria” on Hester Street, which introduced la mein to the Western world.
(NOTE: It remains unknown how ‘la mein’ was renamed ’spaghetti,’ as my great uncle always called noodles by their correct Chinese names in his lifetime.)