Smallscreen Features

‘Extra Virgin’ interview, Debi and Gabriele celebrate la dolce vita, back Oct. 19

By April MacIntyre Oct 18, 2011, 2:58 GMT

Ms. Mazar and her Tuscan-born husband Gabriele return for a second season of food, family and friends, with new episodes of "Extra Virgin" - kicking off Wednesday, October 19th at 10:30pm ET/7:30pm PT on Cooking Channel.

All the stuff that makes life worth living - family, good food, humor, love, friends and a sense of purpose - are all the ingredients in the breakout hit for Cooking Channel, “Extra Virgin.”

For the sophomore season, we meet up once again with the raven haired beauty Debi Mazar - who famously told off Ray Liotta’s character in the classic Scorsese film, “Goodfellas” that doing the dishes “f*cked with her nails” – and her husband, farm boy, composer, musician and chef extraordinaire, Gabriele Corcos.

Thirteen episodes are completed, with half filmed in the USA, and half in Tuscany, Italy.

Corcos is the Yang to Debi's Yin, as he whips up amazing Italian home cooking and is the perfect foil to his wife’s ‘East coast girls are hip’ sense of style and razor sharp sense of humor.

Debi, a modern girl from Queens, and Gabriele, a food purist from the hills of Tuscany, invite viewers into their home life and kitchen in the original series – with hilarious and delicious results.

If you follow Debi on Twitter, you know that this past year has been a busy and stressful one for her. This season, Debi, Gabriele and their daughters move to a new house in Los Angeles, a beloved pet passes on, and the family makes their new kitchen the heart of their home immediately. They also travel to Italy, for a food-filled trip to Gabriele’s hometown.

Debi was one of the great ensemble characters in the now wrapped HBO series “Entourage,” cast as publicist ‘Shauna.’ She also appeared on season nine of the hit ABC competition series “Dancing with the Stars.” Debi has always been interested in cooking and well-known among her friends for her fabulous dinner parties. Since marrying Gabriele and becoming a mother to her two daughters, Debi’s passion for food and cooking has grown even further.

Gabriele Corcos is a musician by trade and cook by nature. Born in Florence, Italy, he was raised in the Olive Country of Fiesole, where his grandmother and mother taught him everything he knows about Tuscan food and traditional farmer’s cuisine. He has an insatiable fascination with food, a love for organic ingredients and a determination to feed his family in the healthiest, most natural way – the Tuscan way. As a professional percussionist and musician, Gabriele has worked with Perry Farrell (Jane’s Addiction), Dave Stewart and Annie Lennox (Eurythmics), and Nuno Bettencourt (Extreme). Bossa Toscana is his current band, and he also recently led a thirteen-piece big band, The Gabop Latin Orchestra.

Friends invited to their home for food and fun this season include Kathy Griffin, Adrian Grenier and Joe Mantegna, who join Debi and Gabriele this season for delicious home-cooked meals, the Tuscan way.

Monsters and Critics spoke to bella Debi Mazar today about the news season:

Monsters and Critics: Season 2 of Extra Virgin, where are you and Gabi taking us viewers?

Debi Mazar: After a decade in Los Angeles, we moved homes, trying to find a rental that felt like our old home wasn’t easy, and we relocated the pizza oven to our new home!

We also lost our beloved poodle Dolores, after 19 years.

Aside from cooking at home with family, we're also about town, visiting butchers, bee farms, urban farms, meeting food artisans, chefs and entertaining some industry friends like Adrian Grenier, Kathy Griffin and Joe Mantegna.

Then we were off to Tuscany, where this season we take you to the sea and cook outdoors. Also, to local farms where we make fresh cheeses, milk cows and step back into time to teach people ancient traditions in making Tuscan Bread, making fresh Ravioli, pasta, all while taking care of our 13,000 Olive trees – we even did a census counting them.

We also show you how to make your own fire pit outdoors and prepare an amazing family dinner. This season is all about great food, photography, history and easy to follow Tuscan cooking. Obviously some comedy and fun banter between Gabriele and myself will happen. My kids are also in several episodes, and show how fun it is to know about and implement self-sustaining garden to the table living!

M&C: What was your favorite meal to eat and prepare? What is the must have recipe so far of the season?

Debi Mazar: Our Chicken Cacciatore, which was made on an outdoor fire pit, last minute in our garden in Fiesole (Florence).

Super sexy, very in touch with the spirit of the evening, where four generations of women of our family came for a sunset dinner. The meal was cooked in an ancient, traditional way in an old pan on the pit outdoors. The dish was made with red wine, olives, anchovies and tomatoes from our garden. All the recipes are great!

We Are exploring new things this season...Gelatos, cocktails, cheese making, plus making fresh sausage with Lindy and Grudy, fresh Buratta (mozzerella and cream fresh cheese) with Mimo…

M&C: What is your favorite Kitchen tool or gadget, and what is Gabriele's?

Debi: My favorite gadget is my Berti Chef knife, for Carne (meat))..I chop everything with it!

Gabriele Bialetti Moka Pot!!! For coffee.

M&C: What dish has your daughters love to help you with making?

Debi: Evelina loves to bake and make Pizza...and blog for us! She is 9! Giulia is 5 years-old and does it all, washes vegetables, chops, and she even drags a chair to the stove and stirs!

M&C: We are approaching the holidays, what is a Corcos-Mazar Thanksgiving like? Give me your picks for an American Thanksgiving with the Extra Virgin flair!

Debi: This Thanksgiving we are off to New York City to be on Macy's day Float to promote the show! Gabriele and I are Pilgrims! And we sit on top of TOM THE TURKEY! Gabriele is from Italy where there is no 'Thanksgiving', so he finds this comical. He wanted to be an Indian, me too! Better outfit...but hey! The kids will join, if they want.

In our home I have always attempted to cook a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. Planning ahead, slaving for days. My childhood memories are fond of this holiday. My grandmother and I would cook and shop together in Queens.

The smell in the house was beyond, on that day. Then my Hippy parents would arrive and everyone would drink and begin to argue about Nixon and the Vietnam War. Grandma was a Republican.

I always loved the food, the fancy table settings, and would sit there as a kid, and think how weird the adults were for fighting and ruining a perfectly wonderful dinner.

So I have tried to have my own celebrations with my family, but their palate is Tuscan. Gabriele thinks white meat is awful; no one likes Candied Yams, gravy...so I stopped doing traditional Thanksgiving food. We now cook anything Tuscan that we love and invite lots of people over, and beg for them to bring a dish too!!!

This holiday we will join friends in New York City and prepare a few delicious Tuscan things, depending on what's available seasonally...I think for Thanksgiving we will do a traditional pasta with porcini, speck (smoked Prosciutto) and mint as well...Possibly a Stew with Polenta. Lots of appetizers too. And after being on a parade float, we will be a bit cold and tired, so whatever we contribute to dinner will be quick and prepared on the spot.

And of course, good Chianti or Brunello will be consumed for sure! With no fighting, I pray!

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Extra Virgin: Premieres Wednesday, October 19th at 10:30pmET/7:30pmPT – “Garage Sale”

Debi and Gabriele’s lives have been turned upside down by their family’s move to a new home. They decide to hold a yard sale and invite the entire neighborhood – but not before Gabriele fires up their outdoor pizza oven and makes a Wood-Fired Breakfast Pizza.

After treating the neighbors to Fried Tuscan Olives and Debi’s Limoncello Spritzer, they finish out the day with their first family dinner in the new house - Conchiglie with Guanciale and Peas and a Mascarpone and Berry Tarte. They may still be living out of boxes and the RV in the driveway, but cooking delicious Tuscan dishes in the kitchen together makes them feel at home.

http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/extra-virgin/index.html

http://underthetuscangun.com/