Every day around noon Luigi Spinabelli's office at Parma Sausage Company gets transformed into this Old World setting. All the other merchants on the street show up with wine, cheese, and bruschetta. It's almost like sitting under an olive tree in old Italy. Work stops and you eat this incredible food and share tall tales.
That, to me, embodied how food—for these people—is not just about eating; it's about a whole way of life. It's the thing that stops you. It's the thing that slows you down. It's what allows you to connect with people who are part of your life. Food is about gathering, and so often in America—especially in offices—people eat lunch at their computers. I've never seen an office get transformed into a gathering place quite like this. It was refreshing.
|
I've never had a back problem in my whole life, but something happened to my back during this assignment—my first for National Geographic. I couldn't even lift my camera bag and by the end of the first day of shooting, I had no idea what to do. I was completely distraught, so I finally called Susan Welchman, my photo editor. She told me to go home and return to Pittsburgh a couple of weeks later.
It was a fluke of an injury, and I haven't had any back problems since. But coming down with an injury on my first assignment for the magazine was a complete nightmare.
|
The day I got to Pittsburgh I met this guy who took me under his wing. He's a used car salesman, and he loves food. So once a week he goes to the Strip just to eat. I've never seen anyone eat more food. For three hours we ate our way across the district. We had ribs, sushi, pasta, pizza, hummus, pita bread, regular bread, and flat bread. And along the way he introduced me to a lot of the key people. He was totally nuts, but in a good way. I was on assignment for one week, and I gained a ton of weight. OK, actually, I gained a few pounds, but if it were up to some of the locals it would have been a lot more.
|
