Life is sweet

Life is pretty dolce these days for TV chef and cookbook author David Rocco. His series David Rocco’s Dolce Vita is an international hit with it being broadcast into 65 million homes each week.
The self-produced show, which is in its fifth season on Canada’s Food Network, was picked up in May by American TV heavyweight The Cooking Channel.
And it has spurred the widely successful 2008 David Rocco’s Dolce Vita cookbook.
Plus Rocco’s young family — wife Nina and 2 1/2 year old twins Giorgia and Emma — are by his side every step of the way.
The Vaughan native enjoys success for a reason.
Rocco’s approach to cooking is pretty simple. His show and its predecessor Avventura teaches people that the ability to cook a good meal doesn’t require a certificate from a top culinary school.
He shows you how to take the simplest of ingredients, for example, tomatoes, basil and garlic, and bam—you’ve got a delicious sauce.
All you need is quality ingredients and the desire to create something.
Afterall, Italian food isn’t about the fanfare but more about the food itself. The sharing of that food with loved ones and the conversations and relationships that are built around the dinner table is what Italian cooking and la dolce vita is all about, Rocco says.
But Rocco admits his loved for all things Italian sometimes wavered.
Growing up in the early 1970s, Rocco would be embarrassed to bring his giant mortadella sandwiches to school. Instead he’d go home for lunch and eat his food in peace — safe from the taunts of his classmates who had more Canadian lunch fare. Think peanut butter and grape jelly slathered on white bread.
“I felt like the poor immigrant family,” Rocco says.
Times have, however, changed.
Sandwiches Rocco’s mom used to make for him now sell for over $10 a pop at high-end grocery stores like Whole Foods and Pusateri’s.
Italian is in, and Rocco knows it. And if you’ve ever doubted that, look at that amount of Italian restaurants there are in the city.
“What is there not to like about Italy,” says Rocco, back in Toronto after spending the better part of his early summer travelling. “The food is exceptional. The people are exceptional. Italy is a magical place.”
His shows have taken Rocco and his crew, including his wife Nina who is Dolce Vita’s producer, to cities and regions throughout la bella paese. He spends four to five months a year there shooting the series.
“Last year we were in Tuscany. Season three we are in Sicily and the Amalfi coast,” he says. “Next season… in the south.”
Rocco says good food is to be had no matter where you are in Italy: Fresh fish in Sicily. Lemon pasta on the Amalfi coast. Small, brownish black olives from San Remo, Imperia. Italy’s got it all.
“You can travel around for two weeks… It’s hard to have a bad meal. You can eat well even at the autogrill (restaurant on the side of the highway).”
And does Rocco have a favourite Italian recipe?
“I’m amazed how the food gets better and better each time I go there,” he says.
But he can’t pick a favourite.
“It’s tough. It’s like picking a favourite kid.”
Rocco grew up in a family who loved to cook. At age six, his parents took him to Italy where the food and culture impressed him.
Rocco turned to acting and producing and had originally intended to make a movie about Italy while on vacation with Nina. The movie never materialized but in the late 1990s, his work lead to the creation of the pilot for the eventual series Avventura, a travelogue/cooking show set in Italy.
“I always thought I would be a performer on some level,” says Rocco, who is now represented by U.S. talent agency William Morris.
Rocco’s life is sweet thanks to his loving family. Nina has been with him right from the get go, acting as his business partner while being his partner in life for 15 years and counting. The birth of their twin daughters in 2008 is also pretty sweet.
When he’s at home, Rocco brings the girls into the kitchen, getting them to help him whether it’s watching daddy or helping to stir the risotto.
“I love to cook. It brings me pleasure,” Rocco says. “It’s a good way of connecting with the kids.”
All the success still amazes Rocco. His show is set to hook 85 million viewers come September.
“It has been an amazing ride. Anything else I get now is gravy.”