Winona's Independent Bookseller

SOLD OUT! 

Join us for another luscious meal served up by The Blue Heron.  In this delectable installment, Mark Leslie, author of "Beyond the Pasta," will join us to read from and discuss his book.  Tickets are $35 each, and participants receive a $5.00 discount on each copy of the book purchased.

About the Meal:  Larry and Colleen will dish up a 4 course meal, using recipes from Mark's book.  The menu will be announced a week prior, but tickets will most likely sell out before then.  A vegetarian option will also be offered.

About the Book:

Several years ago, on a break between theatrical gigs in Alabama, Mark traveled to Italy and fell in love with the people, food, and culture.  Armed with just enough courage, minimal Italian language skills, and a certain proficiency in the kitchen, he enrolled in a full-immersion cooking and language program.  He would travel to Viterbo, Italy and live with an Italian family. 
 
His teachers were beyond his wildest dreams—he learned to cook from the grandmother, or Nonna, of the family, who prepared every meal in a bustling, busy household, as women in her family have done for generations.  Her daughter, Alessandra, taught him the language with patience and precision.  Besides culinary secrets and prepositions, they opened their lives to him, and made him a real part of their extensive family.
 
Though the book contains authentic, delicious family recipes Nonna shared with Mark, Beyond the Pasta delves into food memoir subject matter not found in a typical cookbook.  It was the day-to-day living, befuddled social interactions, laughing and shopping with Nonna, exploring the countryside and le gelaterie, where he truly developed his language skills, and a new, more joyful and uniquely Italian way of looking at the world.

“Mark understands and so beautifully conveys the transcendent nature of true cooking, cooking that comes from the heart and feeds not just the body but the soul. There is something universal about this that goes beyond culture, age, race, and gender—real food, real cooking, real sharing is something sacred and often under appreciated. His writing is smart, sensitive and wittily observed. Beyond the Pasta exemplifies how the act of cooking is intrinsically an act of sharing and affirmation, and has the potential to be
an open expression of the heart.” —Scott Peacock, chef and co-author with Edna Lewis of “The Gift of Southern Cooking: Recipes and Revelations from Two Great American Cooks.”

About Mark: 

Mark, a self-proclaimed “foodie” who loves to cook for anyone with an appetite, works across the country in professional theatre as a stage manager (Mark has spent the last two summers here in Winona stage managing for the Great River Shakespeare Festival).  Every year he vacations in Italy and lives to eat his way through every plate of pasta and cone of gelato placed before him.  He shares those Italian experiences on his popular blog at www.mark-leslie.net.  A Chicago-area native and “Yankee” by birth, Mark has lived in Alabama for over 23 years, and celebrates the fact that he started life eating farina, progressed to grits, and finally arrived at polenta. Buonissima!