- Book written by mother daughter duo of Orietta, Claudia
- Features traditional recipes
- Placed second on Gourmand World Cookbook Awards
When the Stiatti family visited the Maldives in 1989, they did not anticipate in an instant connection with the country that would culminate in a cookbook written about Maldivian cuisine. In the 27 years since their first arrival to the country, the Stiatti’s have left their mark on their second home of Keyodhoo island and started an incredible journey with Maldivian food.
We caught up with the brilliant mother and son Orietta Maffei and Gian Marco Stiatti in the ongoing Food and Hospitality Asia Maldives, where they talked about their extraordinary journey with the country, the food and giving back to the community.
The Stiatti’s first came to the Maldives in 1989, and “it was love” as Gian Marco translating for his mother said.
“We came here the first time in 1989. And it was love. When you see a place like this, you can say oh my god! This is the paradise. So they came back year by year many times. Initially, in resorts. After that we had the possibility to build the second guesthouse in the Maldives. And that permitted us to stay with the local people. And we think that it’s a very nice population and we really love them,” he said.
Their regular stays in the Maldives has gone beyond simple stays. Gian Marco and Orietta said they have invested in the community, helping to develop the island’s schools, waste management procedures and preserving the culture of the Maldives.
He said they had met a Maldivian Idhris working as a room boy in their resort, who had introduced them to the cuisine.
“This guy [Idhris] invited us many times to [go to] Keyodhoo. You can imagine 10 years ago it was something crazy. No one looked at us very well. My mother [Orietta Maffei] had the possibility to see everything change. They had no electricity in the island, she lived with the local people, without medicine, without anything. We have seen step by step how the culture of Maldives started to change and in the same time we saw how easy it was to lose your culture, tradition, your food. So [we thought that] it was time to do something,” Gian said.
So the family brought forward a cookbook that encapsulated the history and culture of the Maldives in collaboration with the Government of the Maldives.
“We came here with the food stylist and photographer. We stayed here in collaboration with Keyodhoo island. And we made this very nice book to launch in the expo in Italy in collaboration with the Government of Maldives,” he said.
The Stiattis were quite surprised when the book became an instant success. "Taste of Maldives" is number two book in the region Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. The book looks at beloved local foods from mashuni to spaghetti with rihaakuru, chronicling a journey of taste that is radically different from Italian food. Fusion is hard to pull off, requires delicate balance and at most introducing something new is a gamble.
“From the North to the South of Italy, you have a million things. Different tastes… This book is initially for tourists. And after that we said okay, let see what we can do with basic products of Maldives like spices, tuna and rice and basic products from Italy like spaghetti. For example, inside you can find spaghetti with rihaakuru. And it’s something Italian people appreciate a lot,” he said.
“They love it! We do an event three months ago and it was successful. We taught them how to make food using the recipes in the book. We had a sponsor from Enzi. We have to say thank you to Enzi for their sponsorship, they gave us rihaakuru and all the products we needed. We had 300 people at once coming for gulha and other appetizers we made,” he said.
Their love story with Maldives is hardly over. The team will return back to the Maldives in October with a team from National Geographic Channel to create a multi-episode look at Maldivian cuisine.
