Mario Lupi's Life in Sorano
Mario's first cafe belonged to his family and was located in the old town od Sorano, operating from 1957 to 1980. In 1980, he and his Wife Nadia opened a new bar in the main square and kept it open for 40 years. At the age of 13, Mario was already working in his family's cafe.
After his military service, he returned and began making pizza in the cafe. A friend of his, who had become a pastry chef in Rome, suggested that he also make desserts. Although he didn’t know how to make them, his friend taught him the secrets of pastry-making.
Franca Piccini, born in Sorano, is a beloved member of the community.
One day, Mario was invited to dinner by his future wife’s family in Orvieto, and while stopping at a pastry shop, he spoke to the pastry chef, who invited him to help out a couple of times a week. This is how Mario perfected his craft, learning to make gelato, buiscuit pastries, cakes for special occasions, and traditional holiday sweets.
As for pizza, he had learned how to make it in Naples during his time in the Carabinieri. For years, he would go to bed early, leaving his wife and children to manage the bar, and would wake up at three in the morning to prepare his pastries.
During the Christmas season, he made panettone, pandoro, and typical Sorano sweets like sfratti and cavallucci. The process for making panettone was long and meticulous: it started at three or four in the afternoon and was baked the evening of the following day, around seven. Throughout the year, he made crostatas, brioche, his famous ricotta crostata and many other delights.
Franca has made a small cookbook of all the recipes of other Soranesi.
Franca, who has always loved to cook, began asking customers who visited the shop for recipes, writing them down on little pieces of paper that she would then hang up. Later, she published a small book with her recipes and those she had collected over the years, published by the Stampa Alternativa publishing house, in the Millelire series, based in Pitigliano, now known as "Strade Bianche."
As a child, Franca remembers that in winter, they had polenta every morning, often with salted cod or meat in a stew, and for her, it was delicious with cheese on top, especially the version with pork. For lunch, they would cook stews: beans, cauliflower, fennel. Meat was eaten twice a week, while for dinner, they would have pasta or a hearty soup. The pasta was all homemade: pici, tagliatelle (made with just a few eggs and flour), gnocchi, and sometimes, when they went to the village, they would buy pasta. She recalls that when she felt ill, they would make her breakfast with milk from the cow, diluted with barley coffee, and that in summer, breakfast was usually bread with tuna, while they typically didn't have snacks; at most, they could eat an orange if there was one.
When the town's sports association started the prosciutto festival and the tortello feast, Franca always participated as a cook, going after work in the evenings and on Sundays. Later, when her grandchildren, who had founded the "Associazione dei Giovani Capaccioli," organized parties in the village, Franca would go and cook there too. She fondly remembers having so much fun and tells of one day when, just for fun, they made a dough sheet over five meters long and took photos of it. Franca has many fond memories related to cooking and her life so far, and she still has so much to offer to those who wish to learn. "You learn by watching," she says, "but you must know who to watch." We hope to meet her again soon at the Scuola di Cucina Soranese, to continue learning from her and preserve the traditions she has so lovingly passed down.
Franca has many fond memories related to cooking and her life so far, and she still has so much to offer to those who wish to learn. "You learn by watching," she says, "but you must know who to watch." We hope to meet her again soon at the Scuola di Cucina Soranese, to continue learning from her and preserve the traditions she has so lovingly passed down.