Legendary Italian food authority Marcella Hazan, fortified by "a parade of Marlboro Lights and afternoon shots of Gentleman Jack whiskey" has penned a memoir, Amarcord: Marcella Remembers, with her husband and translator of 53 years. Today's Times provides a fascinating portrait of the couple. Although their story— a small-town science teacher and a Jewish New Yorker help America discover Italian food — seems pure romance, we learn of the couple's myriad feuds with editors - one of whom alleges that Marcella "had ruined her palate with cigarettes and bourbon" — the snide rumors that theirs is a cynical, dysfunctional partnership, and her rep as an abusive cooking teacher. Of the latter, Ms. Hazan retorts, “What can I do? If you are frying something and just in a second or two you have to turn it and someone says, 'When you cut your meat why do you hold your knife in that way?' I’m sorry. I can’t tell you." [NYT]