Alyssa Kwiatkowski
Table of Contents
Introduction
The purpose of my assignment was to create an oral history and collection of artifacts related to Italian immigration to Canada, in order to contribute to the Italian Canadian Narratives Showcase. I had the honour of interviewing Domenic Pasqualino who graciously invited me to his restaurant. He is the owner of Pasqualino’s and the uncle of one of my longtime friends. While I myself am not Italian, I am studying the Italian language and hoped to gain a better understanding of Italian history from the unique perspective of a business owner well versed in the culinary arts.
The interview took place on Oct. 10 2024, in the restaurant Pasqualino’s. My methods involved conducting a semi-structural interview, which had a predetermined set of 9 questions. Further spontaneous questions were used to follow up on certain answers. The interview was recorded such that it could be accessed at a later date. The information contained was then summarized and used to create an analysis and reflection of the experience. I was kindly given permission by Domenic to photograph the restaurant; in addition to being provided with personal artifacts related to his story to share with the public, I was able to document the restaurant so that its appearance at this moment in time can be preserved.
Interview
Summary of Interview
Analysis
There are multiple connections between the themes discussed in our course readings by Prof. Teresa Russo, and what was discussed by Domenic in his oral history. For example, that of opportunity as discussed in “The Italian Canadian Experience” by Robert F. Harney, or transnationalism as discussed in the article “The New ‘In-Between’ People’s: Southern European Transnationalism” by Luis L. M. Aguiar.
In many cases, the driving factor for Italian immigration, to Canada and otherwise, was the search for opportunity; that holds true whether discussing the first immigrants on the frontiers of Western civilization working as missionaries in the 16th-17th centuries, or those who made the journey to Canada later on in search of work as laborers in the 1900s (Harney, 6, 1998). Domenic shared a similar sentiment in his oral history. His grandfather, who moved to Canada for a period of time in the 1920s to work as a foreman in Fort William did so in order to make money and provide for his family. His parents, as well as some of his uncles and aunts, made a similar journey; while they did not all move to the same cities, they did tend to move to places where friends and family had been to previously. Domenic himself did not chose to make the move from Italy to Canada, as he was too young at the time when his parents made the decision, however he did choose to relocate from Thunder Bay to Milton later on. He and his wife, like Domenic’s parents and grandfather, chose to make this move in order to provide better opportunities for their family. Therefore, the desire for opportunity is a strong motivating factor for change. That desire to better your life, whether for yourself or your loved ones, can push you to take a risk; moving from one city to another, or to a different country entirely are only some examples.
Transnationalism as described by Aguiar refers to how immigrants will settle and assimilate, but still maintain ties to their home country; he argues that while this has been most observed in first generation immigrants, as the subsequent generations often experience what he refers to as “ancestral amnesia”, transnationalism can and does extend past the first generation (Aguiar, 202-204, 2006). Domenic’s account supports this view. Through continued use of the traditional recipes of his mother and mother in-law, and teaching these recipes to the next generation, the legacy of the restaurant and its culinary tradition will live on. His son, someone of the next generation, will be able to continue running the restaurant and ensure it remains open and running as it has been for years to come. Of course, there is still opportunity to modify certain menu items to keep it enticing for clientele, but the ties to Italy and the origin of the dishes remain.
Reflection
Through my role as an interviewer, I gained a new perspective. I did not know what to expect, as I had never conducted an interview before, nor did I already know Domenic’s story. While he is the uncle of my friend, I did not know him personally. I was nervous, but once the interview began, I started to feel more comfortable. The experiences he recounted resonated with me, in that they were similar and yet different to the stories I had heard from my parents and grandparents about their immigration to Canada from Poland. My grandparents risked a lot immigrating to Canada from Poland with their young families, just as the parents of Domenic did immigrating from Italy. I certainly admire their desire to strive for better opportunities, both for themselves and their children. It ended up being a great experience, Domenic was so kind as to show me around the restaurant and kitchen, as well as to allow me to take photographs. We then, briefly due to his busy schedule, talked about operas after I noted that they were one of the main reasons I started learning Italian, and mentioned the artwork of “La Tosca” on the wall in the restaurant. We even discussed some Polish history, namely the Siege of Vienna and the involvement of the winged hussars, when he realized my family was from said country. Overall, I was made to feel very welcome. As mentioned in Domenic’s interview, they aim to make the restaurant a sort of extension of their home; and I can attest that they do a wonderful job of achieving this goal through their hospitality.
I do not believe the direction of the project changed much from my initial thoughts. However, as is the nature of a semi-structured interview some of my expectations were not made reality. While I did not know much about Domenic’s story beforehand, I did plan to ask about his experience founding Pasqualino’s from the beginning. As the interview went on, I found there were several good opportunities to ask more specific questions about the restaurant; for example, about what the experience of founding a business was like, and what his inspiration for the various menu items was. I believe this was a good choice, as Domenic’s answer regarding the inspiration behind the menu items for example gave a lot of information as to where some of the recipes used at the restaurant came from. I also had hoped to discuss the restaurant’s partnership with the Milton Liaison College, however that did not go according to plan. The partnership had come to an end, and thus the discussion did not progress as I had hoped. In the moment, I had regretted bringing it up. Now I can see that I may have learned that information beforehand, had I done a bit more research prior to the interview. However, I do think that moment and conducting this interview in general was a good learning experience for me in both a personal and academic sense. When conducting an interview, or any project involving people, things will not always go according to plan. Even in the sciences, as a molecular biology major I can confidently say that research rarely proceeds the way you would expect. This can of course be disheartening, but if you are able to adjust your expectations in the moment you have the opportunity to create something you couldn’t have imagined before. Overall, I hope that now I will be able to use what I have used from this experience in my personal and academic life, to be more flexible and not become flustered if for example something I say doesn’t have the effect I had hoped, or if an experiment I ran did not give the results I wished for.
Gallery
Bibliography
Harney, Robert F. “Italian Immigration and the Frontiers of Western Civilization.” The Italian Immigrant Experience, Canadian Italian Historical Association, 1988, pp. 1–28.
Aguiar, Luis L. M. “The New ‘In-Between’ People’s: Southern European Transnationalism.” Transnational Identities and Practices in Canada, edited by Vic Satzewich and Lloyd Wong, UBC Press, 2006, pp. 202-215.
Kwiatkowski, Alyssa. “L’ospitalità: The Story of Domenic Pasqualino and the Preservation of Italian Culinary Traditions in Milton” YouTube. November 6, 2024. https://youtu.be/ZpISH5Wxb3E ; access at Italian
Communities in Canada: Heritage, Cultural and Ethnographic Studies as of November
2024, www.italianheritage.ca.
How to Cite
Kwiatkowski, Alyssa. “L’ospitalità: The Story of Domenic Pasqualino and the Preservation of Italian Culinary Traditions in Milton.” In Italian Communities in Canada: Heritage, Cultural and Ethnographic Studies, suprv. Teresa Russo. University of Guelph, 6 November 2024, Guelph (https://www.italianheritage.ca). Italian-Canadian Narratives Showcase (ICNS), Sandra Parmegiani.