Marcella Hazan
🇮🇹 Italy · Italian cuisine · b. 1924
The Italian cookery teacher who taught America how to cook real Italian food.
Biography
Marcella Hazan (1924–2013) was an Italian-born American cookery teacher and writer whose books are widely regarded as the most important works on Italian home cooking ever published in English. She is often credited with single-handedly transforming the way Americans (and, by extension, the English-speaking world) understood Italian cuisine — moving it away from the heavy, cheese-laden Italian-American template of the mid-twentieth century and back toward the regional, ingredient-led, restrained home cooking of Italy itself.
Born Marcella Polini in Cesenatico on the Adriatic coast of Emilia-Romagna, she trained as a biologist and earned doctorates in natural sciences and biology from the University of Ferrara — not in cooking. She moved to New York in 1955 after marrying Victor Hazan, a fur trader and later wine writer, and only began teaching cooking in the late 1960s, after a Chinese cooking class she had signed up for was cancelled and her classmates asked her instead to teach them Italian. The classes, run from her Manhattan apartment, came to the attention of the New York Times food writer Craig Claiborne, whose 1970 profile of her launched her national career.
Her first book, 'The Classic Italian Cook Book' (1973), and its second volume, 'More Classic Italian Cooking' (1978) — later combined and revised as 'Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking' (1992) — are considered foundational. Her three-ingredient tomato sauce (canned San Marzano tomatoes, an onion halved, butter, salt — onion discarded at the end) became a viral classic decades after publication. She and Victor moved to Venice in the 1990s and later to Longboat Key, Florida, where she died in 2013. She was awarded the Cavaliere of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic.
Cooking Philosophy
Italian cooking is the cooking of one ingredient at a time. Hazan insisted that authentic Italian food is not about complexity, layered sauces or showy plating; it is about respecting the integrity of each ingredient, doing as little to it as possible, and accepting that 'pasta is not a vehicle for sauce — sauce is a condiment for pasta.' She was famously hostile to fusion, to 'Italian-American' inventions like fettuccine Alfredo and chicken parmigiana, and to the use of olive oil where butter would be regionally correct.
Restaurants
- Hazan Classics (cookery school)New York
Cooking classes run from her Manhattan apartment from 1969 onward — the launching pad for her writing career.
- Master Classes in VeniceVenice, Italy
Residential cookery courses she ran with Victor Hazan from a palazzo on the Grand Canal from 1980 to 1998.
Awards & Recognition
- Cavaliere of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
- James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (2000)
- IACP Cookbook of the Year for Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking
- Listed by Time magazine as one of the most influential food writers of the 20th century
Iconic Dishes
Cookbooks
- The Classic Italian Cook Book (1973)
- More Classic Italian Cooking (1978)
- Marcella's Italian Kitchen (1986)
- Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (1992)
- Marcella Cucina (1997)
- Amarcord: Marcella Remembers (2008)
Recipes in Marcella's Style
These recipes from our database reflect the italian cooking tradition that Marcella works in. They are not direct reproductions of Marcella's copyrighted recipes, but traditional dishes inspired by the same culinary heritage.
In Marcella's Own Words
“Pasta is not a vehicle for sauce. Sauce is a condiment for pasta.”
— Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (1992)
“Italian cooking is the cooking of one ingredient at a time.”
— The Classic Italian Cook Book (1973)
Career Timeline
Marries Victor Hazan and moves with him from Cesenatico, Italy to New York City.
Begins teaching Italian cooking classes from her Manhattan apartment after a Chinese cookery class she had enrolled in is cancelled.
Profiled by Craig Claiborne in The New York Times — the article that launches her national career.
Publishes The Classic Italian Cook Book with Knopf.
Publishes More Classic Italian Cooking, the companion second volume.
Begins running residential cookery master classes from a palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice with Victor.
Publishes Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, a revised single-volume edition of her first two books — now considered her magnum opus.
Closes the Venice cookery school and moves with Victor to Longboat Key, Florida.
Awarded the James Beard Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award.
Publishes the memoir Amarcord: Marcella Remembers.
Dies at her home in Longboat Key, Florida, aged 89.
Mentors & Influences
Frequently Asked Questions about Marcella Hazan
Why is Marcella Hazan so important?
Her six books — especially Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking (1992) — are widely regarded as the definitive English-language guide to authentic Italian home cooking. She is credited with shifting the American understanding of Italian food away from the heavy, cheese-laden Italian-American template of the mid-20th century and back toward the regional, ingredient-led cooking of Italy itself. Most serious American Italian chefs of the past 40 years cite her as a foundational influence.
What is Marcella Hazan's tomato sauce?
It is a three-ingredient sauce from Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking: a can of whole peeled San Marzano tomatoes, an onion halved, five tablespoons of butter and a pinch of salt, simmered uncovered for 45 minutes — the onion halves are discarded before serving. It became a viral classic in the 2010s and remains one of the most-shared recipes on the internet, two decades after it was first published.
Was Marcella Hazan trained as a chef?
No. She trained as a biologist, earning doctorates in natural sciences and biology from the University of Ferrara before moving to New York with her husband Victor in 1955. She did not begin teaching cooking until 1969, almost by accident, after a Chinese cookery class she had signed up for was cancelled and her classmates asked her instead to teach them Italian.
Where was Marcella Hazan from?
She was born Marcella Polini in 1924 in Cesenatico, a fishing town on the Adriatic coast of Emilia-Romagna in northern Italy. The food of the Romagnola coast and of the broader Emilia-Romagna region — ragù bolognese, hand-rolled fresh pasta, prosciutto, Parmigiano-Reggiano — is the bedrock of all her writing.
Did Marcella Hazan dislike Italian-American food?
She was famously sceptical of dishes like fettuccine Alfredo, chicken parmigiana, spaghetti and meatballs and shrimp scampi, which she considered Italian-American inventions with little basis in Italian regional cooking. She was also hostile to fusion, to using olive oil where butter would be regionally correct, and to over-saucing pasta — she insisted that 'sauce is a condiment for pasta,' not the other way round.
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