I helped Bruno put this blog together as a place where he could share his experiences and thoughts about food, his greatest love after his wife.
Liz and I scheduled a week in November to be in Italy, in which I would give him a little tour about how to begin making posts. I had already added a few videos Mayes had shot of him tasting food, but I was looking forward to him writing his stories and opinions, and making the blog come alive.
Mayes called me in the night, as we were finishing packing, because Bruno was suddenly unwell and in the hospital, and when we landed in Rome the next morning he was already gone.
As this blog will never be what it was designed to be, perhaps now it could be a place where friends might like to share their memories of Bruno, memories relating to his lifelong affair with forks, spoons and chopsticks.
(click on comments below to view people's stories)
I myself can simply say that Bruno has undeniably changed the way I cook, and there is always a moment in the kitchen, or even when I sit down to a meal in a restaurant when something brings him to mind. I never told him this, but he always seemed to be present whilst I prepared a pasta, or a stir fry, and was effortlessly keeping me on track.
I am honoured to have had him as a friend, and miss him very much.
Joseph Feltus
www.feltibus.com
I began calling Bruno the "Pasta Police" a little over 20 years ago. We were working on "Blood In, Blood Out" and going to lunch together daily. He would march back into the kitchen and chew out the chefs who dared to diverge from the classic recipes (his mother's!) and still list them on the menu as their classic counterparts. I thought it was hilarious, and teased him relentlessly. Even though he was my boss at the time, he took the teasing with his usual good humor and, obviously, embraced the moniker. The first "pasta police" license was a pre-photoshop days
ReplyDeletecard of macaroni arranged to spell out the letters Pasta Police. I arranged the noodles with great care on a color xerox machine, and reduced it down to a wallet sized license. He slipped it in behind his driver's license, and I believe it stayed there for quite a long time. I was truly delighted when he started this blog, and I am truly brokenhearted that he will not be here to continue it. I have never felt more acknowledged as a human being than I did by Bruno. We spent many a happy moment, eating food and exchanging ideas. Though, I never dared cook Italian food for him, I never hesitated to speak my mind, he was always listening, acknowledging, and bringing the conversation to the next level. If the law of conservation of energy still holds true than surely a giant quantity of it has just transformed itself into something new, something ingenious, and something fun. We'll all be looking for you Bruno, out there in the firmament of invention and creativity. The spark of your genius burns deep in our hearts and minds.
-Judith Wyle Goldman
An Italian production designer, creating an antebellum town in old Virginia? Surreal, certainly. But Bruno brought a uniquely glorious Italian sensibility to the designs for SOMMERSBY - the movie we made together. We worked together, danced together, ate and drank together. It was Bruno's eye that helped to make Sommersby the visual feast it ultimately became. It was Bruno's ever-appreciative eye for the female of our species that first spotted the lovely restaurant owner in Hot Springs who would eventually become my wife. It was Bruno who first showed me that there was much more to tequila than Cuervo Gold - he gave me my first taste of Chinaco and began the second big love affair of my life! And it was Bruno who provided, on many a raucous evening, the best Italian food to be had in the whole of Virginia.
ReplyDeleteBruno had a talent, a personality and a love of life that were massively disproportionate to the diminutive frame they inhabited. It must be 15 years since we last met and yet his presence feels as vivid to me as if I'd seen him yesterday.
A bright light that lit so many of our lives has gone out. I miss him more than I could ever have imagined possible.
Mayes, Tara and I send all our love and sympathy to you.
Jon Amiel.