Italian chef revels in the chance to cook with mom again, reports Mary Katherine Smith in Shanghai.

After more than 20 years of travel around the world, which took him to 15 countries, chef Stefano de Geronimo decided four years ago that he'd make his home in China. This month, it feels like home in a different way: After not seeing his mother for three years, the executive sous chef at the Zagat-rated Prego Italian restaurant at the Westin Bund Center, they are cooking up a storm together at his restaurant kitchen. And Adriana Iervolino is finally getting to see the country that has mesmerized her son.

Adriana Iervolino joins her jovial Italian son in the kitchen to share some of the secrets of the kitchen that have been passed down for many generations. [Mary Katherine Smith / China Daily]

The family's knack for creating culinary delights goes back to Geronimo's great grandmother, who had her own catering business in the building where she lived. Iervolino learned many of the tricks of Italian cooking at a young age from her grandmother. 

Years later, Geronimo would also learn from his grandparents how to cook delectable Italian food. "I would have my nose up to the table watching my grandmother making fresh pasta, cooking, making the stews for the sauce," he says.

"He began at 6 and 7 years old saying 'I want to be a chef'," adds his mom.

It wasn't until he met his uncle - who opened Italian restaurants overseas - that he realized he could make a career from cooking. "Everything started when I met my uncle, which gave me this image of him as so international, such a famous chef and so able to open restaurants," he says. "That really gave me the boost to be a chef because I thought I would want to go work for him one day."

In a kind of real-life Ratatouille, Geronimo was much like Alfredo Linguini in the Disney animated film, getting his cooking start by working as a bus boy, cleaning the kitchen and washing plates. "I would be looking at what they were doing and when no one saw me, I'd chop the vegetables," he says.

Years and countries later, he now presides over the kitchen at one of the city's top Italian eateries. Despite years of international travel and cooking, he still clings to many of the same ideals that were passed on to him from his mother and grandparents. 

Son and mom agree that the key parts to making a delectable Italian dish are ingredients and love. "Without these you cannot do anything," Geronimo says. 

Back in Italy she follows the slow-food mantra of eating locally, going to the local farmers for her vegetables and produce. Sometimes she picks them herself. 

"Cook for the people you love with love to make something good for them. This is our job - to make people feel good," she says. "If you eat well then you'll feel well."

But cooking for his own family is not such an easy task, and Geronimo prefers to let others do the cooking at home or just cook for his fiancee. "They're always judging everything," he says laughingly. "It's like having five food critics at the table." 

His mom, however, says she loves everything he makes. "He's the chef, everything is good," she says reassuringly. 

For Geronimo, his favorite dish is without a doubt his mama's lasagna, made from homemade pasta. He's quick to say that his mom is the better of the two cooks, to which mom agrees, nodding. 

While Geronimo is friendly and excited talking about the cooking of Italy, he is serious about China. Perhaps his thoughts on the cultural bridges between the two countries are best represented in the mural on the restaurant's wall. 

There has been a long debate about the origin of noodles. 

The mural tries to merge the two countries' most famous culinary parallel, with Marco Polo in the middle holding a bowl of noodles and connecting the two countries. 

Italy and China share many food passions, his mom says, from noodles to the use of vegetables to even the likeness between dumplings and ravioli. 

But Geronimo calls his new home "the greatest country I've ever encountered in my career". It also happens to be the most challenging, a fact that doesn't intimidate this chef. "For me, it's very motivating and inspiring."

After a few years working in administrative roles, it was a job offer in China that brought him back into the kitchen, one of the main reasons why Geronimo savors China so much. 

"It gave me the opportunity to go back to my old cooking skills. China gave me the confidence to stay in the kitchen," he says. "If you look really closely why you are here, it's because this country gives you a great opportunity to express yourself in work to have a job and grow in your career."

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