In July, Francis Ford Coppola visited San Antonio de los Baños, Cuba to discuss film making at La Escuela Internacional de Cine y TV (EICTV) – Cuba’s International School of Film and Television.
Coppola held a conference at the school and met with students and faculty to discuss his passion for film.
According to a Reuters article, Coppola’s interests in food and wine occupied much of his time at the school. Using ingredients brought with him, the famous film director gave Italian cooking instructions combined with advice for young artists.
“Look at me. I like to eat and … and when I was their age I had no money, nothing. That’s why I told them, that’s why I’m so heavy; [it] is because I could just eat spaghetti and cheese, which was cheap,” he said.
On his first trip to the school in 1986, Coppola organized the student body to make gnocchi from scratch for 500 people.
“So I learned how to cook, so that I could eat and I would call my mother and say ‘How do you make this?’ or when I saw something that I liked I would always learn how to do it.”
Commenting about Cuba, Coppola said, “It’s a beautiful place. It’s a beautiful country.”
