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Monday, August 13, 2012

From the Vineyard...

Guest Blogger: Chris Manganaro
Family businesses nowadays are far less common than they were in the past. It used to be that all over the world children would help out their parents on the farm or in the store in order to take over for them when they were gone. It was a nice security blanket for families. Even now there are families lucky enough to have this, but just as in the past, sometimes these are opportunities that are not taken advantage of.
In the book Passion on the Vine: A Memoir of Food, Wine, and Family in the Heart of Italy by Sergio Esposito, the topic of family businesses is brought up a few times in his narrative about his growing passion for wine. As a man who believes in tradition, he seems to believe strongly in the idea of children inheriting the family business. He even wants his son to have a love of wine. He does not force the idea down the readers throat, but rather subtly suggests it through a few situations that he brings up in his narrative.
One such situation is that of a family who owns a vineyard and whose daughter decides to go off to college. She never took too much interest in the work, yet decided to take over the business after graduating after all, rather than see her family get rid of all they had worked for. On the other side of this is a story of a family in which the son always wanted to continue the work on the family farm and decided to give up on continuing his education in order to do so. Esposito relates these cases in such a way that he is not necessarily pushing his view, but rather appreciating the results of the stories he has heard. The way he does this is how he tends to write throughout the book. It is a slightly detached way of writing, but it actually does a lot more in the long run than fully involving himself in everything. As with wine, it helps to develop the flavor of the book. Esposito does a wonderful job of demonstrating the beauty of the family business.
For recipes ,food tips and more get your copy of the Gourmand World Award Winning Book The Basic Art of Italian Cooking : Holidays & Special Occasions-2nd edition

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