(bright music) - [Announcer] Next on "Curate".

- My influence has come from my childhood.

Flavors were everything for me.

Buon appetito.

Enjoy.

- This is beautiful.

- We try to create this beautiful thing that we missed for two years, a shoulder to shoulder humanity of shared experience.

- One minute, everything is fine.

And then the next moment, it's all gone.

- [Host] This is "Curate".

- Welcome.

I'm Jason Kypros.

- And I'm Heather Mazzoni.

Thanks for being with us as we come to you from a very exciting new gallery space in downtown Norfolk.

- [Jason] This is the Glass Light Gallery.

It features amazing pieces from the Perry Glass Art Collection.

- [Heather] The gallery has works from local artists, as well as internationally renowned glass artists like Dale Chihuly and Karen LaMonte.

We'll take a much closer look at some of these beautiful glassworks later in the show.

- But, first up is a culinary work of art.

One of the best restaurants in downtown Norfolk for the past several years is Luce.

- [Heather] It's Italian, and based on the food, wine, and culture of the old country, but with added flare that could only come from the creative mind of chef owner Antonio Caruana.

Tony was kind enough to have me in for a meal and conversation about his philosophy, his new second location, and of course, his food, which is art served on a plate.

Tony Caruana is our 757 Featured Artist.

(upbeat music) Tony, tell us what you're making today.

- Hi, okay.

Today I'm going to make mafalda, or mafaldine di guanciale, which is a pasta dish.

Mafalda is a type of pasta.

It's a little bit of a rigid pasta.

Guanciale is a Italian term for a hog jowl.

So it's a real nice nutty flavor.

And it's just an absolute delicacy.

Very nice simmer dish, all in one pan.

We can do this quite quickly, but when it's done right, it's absolutely, it's just amazing.

So that's what I'm gonna do for you today.

- Fantastic.

- So I'm gonna start a little bit of extra virgin olive oil, and then we're gonna go right ahead and render down our meat with that.

We want to do it at the same type of temperature so we don't fry it too fast.

We want to bring it up to temperature with the oil so that, the beauty of this dish is not specifically eating the meat.

It's eating the residuals or the renderings of the meat, passed in through the pasta.

The pasta is the showstopper.

So now that that's going, I'm gonna add my onions.

So this can be a little bit of white onion or shallot.

We're gonna let that cook off.

Stir my pasta here a little bit.

I'm gonna make sure this pasta stays and remains al dente.

- Mm-hmm.

Got it.

- So now that that them onions are starting to sweat, they're going to get a little translucent.

It's working in time with temperature with the whole dish here, as you can see, everything's coming together real nice.

You can start to smell it now as well.

- It smells great.

- It's almost a bacony smell, but you can tell that it has a little, a lot more earthiness.

White wine, I like something crisp, a Pinot Grigio, a Vermentino, a Grillo, something like that.

It's going to give it a nice acidic flavor.

We'll let that cook.

- [Heather] Woo.

- Turn that on, nice.

- You can really smell that.

Smells nice.

- Now, I'm gonna a little bit of a natural acidity here.

So I want to have some real tomato in here.

- And you make your own fresh pasta here?

- Yes, ma'am.

Everything is made here in house.

- [Host] That's what I thought.

We have six different cuts of pasta and they're made fresh daily.

We make everything in house.

There's nothing really here that's not made here.

The only thing not made here are the ingredients.

(both laughing) I'm gonna take my tomatoes now like this here, that's going to be the base of our sauce.

I'm gonna add a little calabrese pepper here for a little bit of nice natural heat.

As you can see, all the ingredients are natural.

There's nothing in here that's not good for you, in a sense, you know.

- That's great.

Of course, guanciale might not be the best for your arteries, but it is the best for your tongue, and your mouth, and your taste buds, and your life, and your soul.

(Heather laughing) So now, what I'm going to do, get a little bit of water in here from this pasta, we want that starchy nice water.

I'm going to put a little bit here, and we're going to put this pasta right into here now.

This is how we're going to cook the rest of this pasta the rest of the way.

Now, what I'm going to do is I'm gonna add a little bit of butter 'cause I'm going to add back some of that fat we lost, if any, in that guanciale.

And this is gonna give it a real nice mouthfeel.

And a little bit of Pecorino Romano cheese.

This is sheep cheese, a nice high end sheep cheese, other Rome as well.

Good lord, see how that's coming together beautifully.

- Yeah, it's beautiful.

And there we have it.

Now we're going to plate this, and we're going to eat as if we just conquered a village.

(Heather laughs) Pasta first.

Always the pasta in the sauce.

Toss your pasta with your sauce.

And the other trick is never over sauce your pasta.

And to finish this off, little Grana Padano from Italy, a little bit of micro basil on top, just to keep the eyes right.

We eat with our eyes first, as most every chef will tell you.

There you have it.

(upbeat music) - Here you are.

- Thank you.

- You're welcome.

Buon appetito.

Enjoy.

- This is beautiful.

Mm.

It's amazing.

- Very good, glad you like it.

Well, cheers, with this is a nice Barbera d'alba.

One compliments the other for sure.

- Oh, that's nice.

- [Tony] Ah, perfect.

- So not only are these dishes beautiful, but they're just incredibly delicious and you put your own spin.

These are your recipes.

What's your source of inspiration?

- That guy.

That's my father.

Pretty sure my dad, and my family, is all into cooking.

I grew up eating Italian food.

Of course, Italy, Italian food, for regional, mostly Rome area, some Sicilian stuff.

My influence has come from my childhood and how it makes me think about, the flavors were everything for me, everything I did, even when I was growing up was that.

So now as an adult, everything I do is based around food, everything.

I won't go on a week long vacation unless there's someplace or something based around food there.

That's kind of where I get my inspiration.

- [Heather] I love this because, so you never stop learning.

It's always a process of learning, seeing what others are doing.

- If you're cooking from a recipe, that's when you stop learning.

If you're gonna continue moving past that recipe and continue moving on your track, you have to continuously learn.

Everything in a cooking game is somewhat of a recipe in that aspect.

So you have to learn what it is and your next step, then your next step, then your next step.

Those who learn more steps will exceed further.

With every trend that comes around, with every new ingredient that comes around, with every fusion of regions that come around, you're going to continuously grow.

- I know I'm really excited that you're opening up a second location in Chesapeake.

Can you tell me a little bit about that?

- Yeah, absolutely.

I'm very excited about it.

The same anxiety, excitement- - Of course.

Stress, everything that makes this place what it is, is great.

- Mm-hmm.

- Now I have to go do it again, in a much bigger venue, but I'm ready for that.

As a person I'm very nervous, as a chef I'm excited as hell.

- [Heather] I bet, I bet.

- But I'm definitely looking forward to highlighting what we have and what we've always been.

And also bringing on new things that I'm able to do over there that a lot of people are just going to be amazed with, too.

- [Heather] You know, one of the things about Luce, when you come here, is the food is just the highest quality, it's incredible.

Oftentimes with that comes a pretentiousness.

And in your restaurant, you walk in the door and you feel like family.

- You should be happy and comfortable and you should come here and eat and know that you're coming here and you're getting something good.

There is no pretentiousness here because I don't want to hear it.

Take your tie down, relax and enjoy the best food you can.

That's what I want.

- So we're sitting here with your dad, got a picture of your dad.

Tell me about your dad and your family.

- When it comes to cooking and food, my family had just made good food.

They still do.

My aunt was one of my favorite chefs in the world, and she's one of my inspirations.

My father was a chef worker.

You know, his love for food is where I got mine.

As far as recipes, people tell me all the time, "Is this your grandparents recipe?

Is this an old family recipe?"

No, I don't have that story.

It's been passed down for generations, well before my family.

What comes on my plate is inspired by my travels, by my pallet, by my thought.

- [Heather] I love that they laid the foundation.

- Definitely inspired by my youth.

- This was a big decision and a big undertaking to open a restaurant.

What in the world made you enter this crazy world?

- So when I opened up this place, it was very easy for me to do.

It was a very easy decision because I had nothing else.

That the only thing I knew is I wanted to cook.

I wanted to bring my stuff out.

All's I really wanted in this little place was a nice wine bar, and a martini bar, with a nice little menu.

As people started coming in, the menu ended up being requested more, everything started rising and all of a sudden it became the food, the food, the food.

So therefore people started coming and want more food.

Now we started becoming a restaurant.

Now I'm busier than I've ever been.

I don't understand what the hell I did.

(Heather laughs) It went from what I wanted it to be, to this thing where it is now.

And I'm very proud of it.

- Congratulations.

I mean, it's such a wonderful restaurant and the fact that you're opening a second location is huge, but there's a saying that goes, if it doesn't scare you a little bit, it's not worth it.

So there you go.

- Right.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, it really needs to petrify me.

- Yeah.

(laughs) - Yeah, so.

(upbeat music) - Heather, I'm jealous.

That looked so good.

If you want more Luce, you can see the story again on our website, whro.org/Curate.

Go there to find all of our 757 featured artists from our six years doing the show.

We also have every broadcast episode and other great "Curate" content.

But for now it's back to the glass.

We're coming to you from Glass Light Art Gallery.

A longtime dream of Norfolk arts patrons, Doug and Pat Perry.

The Perry's have made this work available to the public, whether you're staying at the adjacent hotel or just want to pop in and check it out.

It's really wonderful.

Take, for instance, this work from Norwood Viviano, It's a glass replica of downtown Norfolk.

Viviano's work often features fragile cities, which is appropriate for Norfolk given our flood risks.

Below, there is a map.

So if you have any issues figuring out local landmarks, you can refer to that to help you find your way around.

It's very cool.

Now turning from glass to wood, Oklahoma based artists Ebony Iman Dallas has created a mural called Greenwood Imagine.

It's based on a poem and imagines a world in which the 1921 Tulsa massacre never happened.

(dramatic music) - My biological father came from Somaliland.

And literally like when the civil war broke out, bombs are being dropped on your house by the government.

So it reminded me of what happened in Greenwood.

One minute, everything is fine.

And then the next moment it's all gone.

My name's Ebony Iman Dallas.

And I'm an artist.

I love to tell stories through my work.

I would definitely say a lot of my choices are influenced by my background.

(dramatic rhythmic music) In 2008, I went to visit my family in Somaliland.

We were getting henna done, and my art just kind of lent itself to that.

My art since then has definitely become a lot more free.

Close to a year and a half ago, Tony Brinkley got in touch with me because he had this idea called Greenwood Imagine.

Tony, he's a poet, amazing, phenomenal, award-winning poet.

And his grandson, Derrick Tinsley, is a filmmaker.

And so they were looking for a painter to create a series of murals that would go along with the poem.

And so I proposed him that I create the murals solely out of wood.

This is where you have to make sure not to cut your hand off.

(laughs) (saw rumbling) So the very first scene is like the past.

So it's like, let's show what Greenwood was like before destruction.

So it's this beautiful scene of the little girl with her father, walking through town with an ice cream cone.

(man speaking indistinctly) The second scene was pretty much created after reading through a series of interviews.

But this one specifically talked about, you know, it was a survivor.

I believe she was about five years old when the massacre occurred.

And she talked about these reoccurring dreams that she would have.

And to me, it sounded like PTSD.

She talked about the smoke, and she talked about the smells, and she talked about the fire, and it was just so vivid, her description, I immediately was able to create a sketch for it.

(gunfire popping) (fire crackling) I guess, in some ways I may have went that direction because my father was murdered by police officers.

And so, that idea of this father daughter relationship and loss resonated with me.

And then reading these stories about people who lost parents in Greenwood definitely resonated.

(melancholy music) The third scene is let's imagine what it could have been like.

Like what would it be like if, you know, had the massacre never occurred.

There'll be some puzzle pieces missing.

And so then we'll have someone from the audience come up and place it into the piece.

- Let's imagine a what if, what if the massacre never happened?

What if Tulsa residents had enjoyed free rain to flourish into the future and Greenwood never lost that yes we can mindset.

Can you imagine this?

- [Ebony] But basically it's like we have the power to recreate a new Greenwood.

We just need to believe in it and just go for it.

(inspirational music) - Artist Dan Dailey has worked in glass for more than 40 years.

Two of his pieces are featured here on the second floor.

In his work, Dailey seeks to depict human character and the world we inhabit.

These are two of more than 60 pieces that fill the two-story gallery here.

Artist Judy Holley was just a teenager when she began her life's work.

And now she has spent a lifetime honing her craft.

Her Americana influence, and sewing every day, has led to a collection of sublimely colorful quilts.

(gentle music) - In 1998, I had a quilt that won first places in every show that it was in, including the one in New Orleans, and then the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival, and Williamsburg, Virginia, and then it also won something in Houston at the International Quilt Festival that year.

Raspberry Parfait is a New York Beauty block.

And it's something I always wanted to try.

And I was at a fabric store and I saw some thirties prints on sale.

That's always a good excuse to buy something.

But one of the prints on sale looked exactly like the fabric that was in my mother's kitchen when she bought this old '30s house in central Mississippi.

It looked like the curtains we took down.

And so I bought that and I bought some friends and they were on sale.

And for about a year, I kind of gathered up all this fabric that was depression-era '30s type prints.

And so I made her a New York beauty quilt out of those depression era prints for her '30s house.

When you look at the New York Beauty blocks and you see all the points, I actually cut strips and their paper piece.

So I'm not cutting out any little pieces.

I'm making them from strips.

And I just cut as I go.

I started sewing at 16.

I was in a girl's trio for several years and we had all of our dresses alike.

And I liked my trio clothes.

I didn't like the ones that were store-bought.

'Cause I like going to the store and picking the pattern and picking out the fabric.

My mother made my trio clothes, but she didn't like it.

My grandmother was a depression era quilter, and her quilts were all over her houses, but she was old by the time I came along and I never actually saw her quilting.

She talked about it.

We slept under the quilts.

And at one point when we lived in her house, her quilting frame hung over my bed, suspended from the ceiling.

I never saw a quilt in it, and I never saw anybody using it.

I knew what wood is for.

And I always said, one day, I'm going to make a quilt.

When I was 16, I took my money I got from my birthday and I lived in Connecticut at the time, right in the middle of the textile industry.

And I went to one of the local mills and bought fabric and everything I needed, and shut myself up in my bedroom with a sewing machine.

And when I came out, I had a dress.

I've been sewing ever since.

I work on the computer a lot, I don't really design that much on the computer.

I do some, a little bit, but I like designing at the design wall, I like the fabric to tell me what to do.

Originally, I pieced by machine and I quilted by hand.

And I did quilt by hand for quite a few years.

And you finally get the point you're not going to be able to finish all these quilts.

Hand quilting takes awhile.

I decided to learn to quilt on a domestic machine.

And a lot of people now use a big, long professional long-arm.

I didn't even know what that was when I was learning how to quilt.

So by the time I was aware of what law arms were and what they could do, I had already mastered quilting on a domestic machine, so I have no desire to change.

The Juki actually is an industrial strength machine, but the batting doesn't really cause much of an issue.

Sometimes there's a lot of bulk in the seam allowances that you have to sew over, but it's not an issue with the Juki.

I had one machine that if you weren't using the exact needle specific for that technique or that fabric, it wouldn't sew.

Most machines aren't that persnickety.

I do use predominantly cotton.

Men's shirts are great.

Do make quilts from dead people's clothes, often, usually that's for family members.

When I made the quilt for the family and he had beautiful shirts, a hundred percent cotton, high quality, they wanted their quilt and I got to keep the rest of it.

And I like using woven fabric.

I'm adventuresome.

I will still use other fabrics.

I collect ties and people just give those to me.

They're predominantly silk, but they can be acetate, they can be polyester, they can be woolen silk blends, they can be cotton.

So you're putting them all together.

You have to wash it in cold water and not put it in a dryer.

I have a quilt in the front made from Japanese brocades.

If you're working nonstop on a project, I made a quilt for my boss in about two weeks, Four to eight hours a day.

That was maybe twin size, or large lap or twin.

Quilting is compulsive.

And once you start, it's something like you need to do, or you have to do.

And I probably sew some every day.

(gentle music) - The Virginia Symphony Orchestra has had quite a year, 12 months ago, we were telling you about how they were navigating through the pandemic.

And now, while we're still feeling some of the effects of COVID, the VSO is looking to the future.

Having recently welcomed a new music director, Eric Jacobsen, who took to the stage with none other than Branford Marsalis to kick off his Virginia career.

(orchestral music) - We try to create a moment in time.

And we try to create this version of what happens when you sit down in a group of people, that beautiful thing that we missed for two years, shoulder to shoulder humanity of shared experience.

I feel so lucky to be here with the Virginia Symphony.

And then feeling so honored that that Branford Marsalis is with us doing this incredible program.

(gentle saxophone music) We worked once together, three years ago.

We were having a cocktail.

- We were just hanging out drinking Sazeracs and he says.

- What can we do next?

I just want to play with you again.

He's like, "Well, saxophone concertos, you know, well, I think the best ones are by Sally Beamish."

- I said, "Sally Beamish", and he started checking out her music.

And months later, he says, "Man, this music is astounding.

We should play it."

Said wherever you want.

And then suddenly, he gets his job here and he's like, "Hey, we're going to do it in Virginia."

I'm like, okay, great.

(gentle saxophone music) - [Eric] I feel like that is the feeling on stage.

Feeling like the orchestra and Branford together have been able to immediately find the sympathetic moment and play chamber music together.

And that's what this is.

- I love Eric.

I love his enthusiasm.

I love his technique, and orchestra loves him.

The piece itself, it's one of those great Sally Beamish kind of images.

The imagined sound of sun on stone.

There's an old Scottish burial ground, and there's a light that shines through only one day a year on winter solstice.

And the light hits this rock inside of the tune.

And that's the whole idea that the light hits the rock.

And just imagine if you could have like a sonic history of all the things that had gone on for the hundreds of years that that tune been there.

(orchestral music) - This is one of the most incredible groups of musicians.

The energy, the musicianship, the virtuosity is so deep.

And I think that's why Bradford was willing to do this type of program.

It really feels like the homecoming of being on stage is so important and so beautiful to all of us.

(gentle orchestral music) - [Heather] Watch "Curate" anytime, it's online at whro.org/Curate.

- [Jason] And follow us on social media for additional content.

Look for WHROPublicMedia on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube.

And thanks again to the Glass Light Gallery here in downtown Norfolk.

They are open to the public between 8:00 AM and 8:00 PM Tuesday through Saturday.

It's well worth the trip.

- Thanks for being with us this week.

We're going to leave you with more from Eric Jacobsen, Branford Marsalis, and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra.

I'm Heather Mazzoni.

- [Jason] And I'm Jason Kypros.

And we'll see you next time on "Curate".

(gentle orchestral music)