The very last thing I did in Parma during my visit this past fall was to stumble into Gloria Canelli's magical apartment and gasp. Gloria is an archaeologist whose excitement for the world's little artifacts is immediately evident when you step into her home, but especially so when she takes you to her kitchen.
What amazed me most was that despite her clusters of knick-knacks and towers of memories, she cooks every single day, knows where every last utensil and pot top hides, and keeps all her ingredients in very fresh rotation. This was one of the most fascinating kitchens I'd ever seen.
Her place is one of the five apartments that make up a building her parents bought in 1953, the year they married. Previously, fifty people had lived in the building; now three of the five apartments are occupied by Gloria and her siblings, and her parents have the other two. Gloria told me that her apartment and those of her siblings showcases each of their differing styles. In the case of Gloria's apartment, it is all about collections.
When I arrived at Gloria's place, I'd just finished touring another kitchen nearby, belonging to Lina Germi where not a single item is out of place. What opposites! I had a little chuckle to myself as Gloria showed me her pinball machine and her collection of sugar packets from around the world, remembering how Lina, just a few blocks away, had the most sparse kitchen I'd ever seen.
Gloria's world is colorful, noisy, and chaotic, and yet she has a soft voice and gentle academic manner that puts a visitor at ease. Everywhere you turn there is something to explore, from the ice cream cone dispenser ("I don't serve ice cream here; those cones are years old") to the wall of number seventeen table cards she's swiped from across the globe.
By the time I left I wasn't sure if I would rather try her pigeon and rice, or wander a foreign land, digging up treasures and sneaking colorful trinkets into our pockets.
10 Questions for Gloria (and Her Kitchen)
1. What inspires your kitchen and your cooking?
My travels and my curiosity about the world. I cook something based on the thing I cook it in.
2. What is your favorite kitchen tool or element?
It's too difficult to pick! Maybe my collection of soapstone and brass cookware. It comes from Brazil, usually. But I also recently got a piece in Iran.
3. What's the most memorable meal you've ever cooked in this kitchen?
I make rice and pigeon for my husband and it's his favorite thing. That will be memorable one day.
4. The biggest challenge in your kitchen:
Baking. I use the oven to store things. It doesn't matter because my sister makes beautiful cakes and she lives next door.
5. Is there anything you wish you had done differently?
Sometimes I wish it were bigger, but I love my kitchen. This is the heart of the home.
6. Biggest indulgence or splurge in the kitchen:
There are so many treasures in here, I cannot answer that. Space-wise, the pinball machine is a splurge. I bought it for myself on my birthday.
7. Is there anything you hope to add or improve in your kitchen?
I could probably throw away some magazines.
8. How would you describe your cooking style?
I travel a lot so I look to cook all kinds of cuisine.
9. Best cooking advice or tip you ever received:
Cook every day.
10. What are you cooking this week?
Lentils in my soapstone pot. They cook slowly and stay warm on the table.
We're always looking for real kitchens from real cooks.
Show us your kitchen here!
Related: A Peek into Parma, Italy
(images: Sara Kate Gillingham-Ryan)
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It's so refreshing to see something that hasn't been over-staged and over-styled. Love the pinball machine. Bellissimo!
Here at The Kitchn we like REAL kitchens and we know you do too. Thank you!
I've never heard of soapstone cookware. Very interesting collections that I, for one, would NOT want to dust and clean. I think spending an afternoon with her, her collections and stories that go along with them would be a joy!
Amazing!! A Wunderkammer, full of intriguing curiosities to explore. Somehow just right for an archeologist! Love the collection of soapstone and brass pots.
Love that you showcase a place that is a bit of a mess--not just pristine places. I have collections on the shelves in my living room--only things I love, but my more minimalist friends and family only see clutter.
Marion
Thank you for sharing this kitchen with us. It's wonderful; foreign,fabulous and familiar!
Truly wonderful! I love her bakeware collections! I have a small bakeware collection but it is dispersed all over the house because... well it works for everything!
Do you mean it about sending in photos of "real" kitchens? LIke ones used by every day, "real" people? You know, the ones used by stay-at-home moms to kids and dogs... lived in, yet loved kitchens?
Have a great day!
I love this! The whole vibe of it! Wonderful and unique, although different corners and details reminded me of some kitchens back in Portugal :)
Tell me more of soapstone cookware!
What a cozy jumble of a kitchen - love it! And I, too, want to know more about soapstone cookware...
Love this! a real, working kitchen with little odds and ends to explore. very cool.
Lovely, it reminds me of my grandmother's kitchen where I spent hours... There's something incredibly comforting about kitchens like this, you feel right at home. Nothing styled nor staged, it shows the personality of the owner. It made me smile...
And, yes: please tell more about cooking with a soapstone pot? I use my tagine a fair bit, but have never tried soapstone....
Che Guevara in the kitchen? Love it! Lots of charm and personality here as well as function.
One of my most memorable meals from my childhood is Squab (young pigeon) with a rice stuffing. My father raised pigeons as a hobby and mother developed a very tasty recipe roasting them with wine and tomato sauce. I'm getting an aroma memory right now! This is from a very long time ago since my father died in 1957 and the birds were not raised much after that.
Thank you for showing a kitchen that's not overly staged but still inspiring!
A red smeg! A pinball machine! What a life and appetite affirming space!
Wonderful! I know every kitchen we see here on The Kitchn is probably well loved and used but so often they're so heavily styled that it feels unreal. This feels so intimate. I'm so grateful Gloria was willing to share her lovely home with us.
these, are the rooms, the tables, the memories we want to come home to...the spaces that inspire comfort and true peace. Not the overly fussed over and staged to the HILT faux spaces that are pushed into the media...nooo, this one -is just perfect! Thank you! for sharing this most welcome dose of -AUTHENTIC- with us!
My anthropology prof (whose specialty was historical archaeology) and his wife had a kitchen much like this. I think it had a lot more wooden things, though.
The piles of things everywhere are giving me hives. How do you clean anything with all that clutter?
This is the kitchen of a hoarder. It looks filthy.