Lara Fabian is told in an autobiographical gourmet work entitled “Everything”. A chance for the singer to talk about her fulfilling family life as she just celebrated her 30-year career on stage.
On the occasion of the publication of her gourmet autobiography Everything (Libre Expression Editions), in which she provides anecdotes and cooking recipes, Lara shared with Fabian some secrets about her thirty-year career, her family life and her passion for saving the kitchen.
Paris match. In an anecdote, you tell that when you moved to Belgium as a child, you missed the flavors and sun of Sicily. Today you live in Quebec. How do you make up for the deficiency?
Lara Fabian. I am fortunate to be able to travel regularly and find my island. However, the way to compensate is to go sometimes to this famous little Italian restaurant in Montreal’s Little Italy that imports all these incredible products that make me feel at home.
What comes after this ad?
Are you thinking about an Italian language album to celebrate your origins and tell about the Sicily you love?
Not like that. Not in this form.
What comes after this ad?
We’ll never hear you sing in Italian again…
Certainly singing in Italian, but not an album dedicated to Sicily. Maybe something that would be culturally oriented in a musical sense.
You are planning a break. How will you take care of yourself?
I’ve been busy enough in my life. I’ll take my full break! In fact, it’s a break that relates to wanting to be with family. It’s a break where I get up early in the morning with my daughter, where I pick her up from school, I bring her back. It’s a life where I’m becoming a lot more mother and wife than just the artist that I am.
What comes next after this ad What comes next after this ad
When you were young you felt alone and different. That’s when you wrote your first texts. Was it to make you feel less alone?
It was a way of giving me some relief. one breath. I wrote little things in a diary, they weren’t songs yet, I was only nine years old. But the music, the piano, the fact of having a diary allowed me to express things that I couldn’t say orally.
You say you prefer regrets to regrets. Does that apply to your career as well as to your professional life?
Absolutely. I’d rather have had an experience, even if it might end up tasting a bit more sour, than regret not having tasted it.
The secret of longevity
They keep quoting you and assuring you that one of the hardest things about this job is to persevere. How did you master the challenge?
By trying to live each day as another vast field of possibilities. By telling myself what was done yesterday or what wasn’t done yesterday, it’s over. Today another possibility dawns, another opportunity. So always see life as something that allows us not to look back which is why I say I don’t like regrets but always look ahead. And then be honest.
In your book you thank women in particular, while it is more men who helped you to start your artistic career. What have these women brought you?
All. They brought me a different perspective, the power of comfort, a realignment when it mattered most. A clarification if it was important. The truth is, if anyone had to have the courage to say it, often it was a woman who had the courage to say it. And then lots of love, lots of love.
For you, music is a family affair. Did your daughter Lou inherit this interest?
She plays the guitar, Lou. A lot more lately, but I can see she’s really doing it for fun. Not necessarily to make a career. But besides, in my case, it wasn’t a job a priori at all. For us, music was a way of being together, of celebrating. Instead of turning the song on, we sang a song we all knew because dad was on guitar, mom was on song, grandma was on piano. It really was something of a reunion.
Do you sometimes sing with your daughter?
This has happened to me once or twice. She doesn’t like it because it’s not what she prefers.
How do you feel when you sing with her?
It’s very moving because obviously we have very compatible voices. She has an alto voice, I have a soprano voice. It’s really kind of a missing part of my voice. So when we sing together, a perfect unity is created. It’s very, very annoying.
“My mother, the words of love she said are similar to Gabriel’s.”
You mention the momentous encounter with your husband, the magician Gabriel di Giorgio, which immediately made you think of your mother. How does he remind you of your mother?
In the way he lives his life. He is someone who is really in the moment, looking at things with great enthusiasm. He’s a creative. I would say he is an engineer of joy. Even when it is very serious, he has a way of turning the prism of what is wrong with great skill and a will to solve, to heal.
And it reminds you of your mother…
Absolutely…Mom was like that. And they look alike physically too. It’s very special. My young mother and young Gabriel… it could have been her son. It’s pretty unsettling.
How do you approach this resemblance?
I live with a Sicilian. My mother was Sicilian, so being a cousin makes her even greater compared to that resemblance. The mirror is very big, very strong in language, the words of love I hear. My mother, the words of love she said are very similar to Gabriel’s. And then the culture, the way of living, of eating, prioritizing the family, our friends. That’s why they look very similar.
Lara Fabian and her husband Gabriel Di Giorgio attend the Ducasse de Mons or Doudou, a local festival held every year on May 22, 2016 in Mons, Belgium ALAIN ROLLAND/ IMAGEBUZZ/ BESTIM / © ALAIN ROLLAND/ IMAGEBUZZ/ BESTIM
You have overcome eating disorders. How did you find your balance?
The women were very important, but one in particular. Her name is Masayo. I would say she saved me. In the way she had to represent food differently for me, to stop being afraid of it, to stop avoiding it, to see it as a work of art at times. Masayo is a great chef from Osaka. I don’t know, she has this way of making food beautiful…
Your daughter inherited your passion for cooking, especially baking. what did she teach you
Fantasy. She taught me that imagination is one of the first ingredients you put on the counter. Even if it’s not perfect, it doesn’t matter.
Do you have a favorite recipe for the end of the year celebrations?
Not really for the holidays. But if you ask me for a favorite recipe, I’ll tell you the risotto, which I make well. But for the holidays… Probably the pasta al forno. So it’s pasta with all sorts of ingredients that we mix in a timballo, which is a kind of shape. We put them in the oven and put them back on a tray and cut the pasta into slices. It sounds strange, but it’s a kind of lasagna reinvented.
do you cook during the holidays
Yes, me, Lou… The women of this family.
In your book you present a variety of cuisines from different cultures. Which flavors do you find the greatest response to?
Apart from my culture, my mother’s culture, which is definitely Italy, Japan.
Why ?
Its finesse, its elegance, the care of the ingredient, its purity.
Your quintessential comfort food?
There is one foot in one culture, one foot in the other. In my mother’s culture, it would be the lasagna pasticcio. And for my dad, it would be this stew, a mix of potatoes and seasonal vegetables, mashed with butter and nutmeg. which i like! It reminds me of my childhood. These are actually two dishes I ate when I was little.
Your guilty pleasure?
The chocolate mousse with whipped cream on top, accompanied by a small sponge cake that I dip in the whipped cream and in the chocolate mousse. Can I add strawberries dipped in white chocolate?
Follow a recipe to the line or let creativity do the talking?
In some cases, like a risotto, having the right amount of water and the right broth is very important so there’s still a method to follow. But in general I’m more into the creativity than the method. It’s also a gourmet autobiography. He is not one to invent himself as a leader. I’m a girl who cooks for the people she loves.