THE INIMITABLE STYLE OF GLORIA MIZZI - MaltaRightNow.com

| CELEBRITY INTERVIEW |
Gloria’s favourite…
… Dish “I love food! But it depends on the mood –
… a nice ‘bicca hobz biz-zejt’, pasta, vegetables…”
Drink “Water”
Fruit “Bajtar ta’ San Gwann”
Vegetable “Aubergines, whichever way they’re
made – Parmiggiana, Frittata, stuffed…”
[ TV BEGINNINGS ]
Smell “I like pungent smells… Cumin, nutmeg,
cinnamon, peperoncino”
information and education”. She adds that people are
now more health-conscious and interested in matters
of well-being, nutrition and healthy eating than they
were a few years ago. People follow discussions about
religion, law, women’s rights, single parents, separated
couples, same-sex couples, paedophilia – these are all
subjects which are extremely topical today – but were
considered taboo when she began her career.
Gloria is quick to disagree that these type of
programmes still target the ‘housewife’ and explains
that audiences nowadays have changed and are
more varied, subject to the time of day they are
broadcast. Moreover, there are far fewer housewives
now then there used to be when she started television,
and, judging from the programme phone-ins,
her programmes also attract many men, “Never
underestimate your audience,” she says by way of
conclusion.
Gloria recently had a stint on radio, which she
describes as a very powerful medium, and much more
[ BELOW - FOUR GENERATIONS OF WOMEN ]
[ BOTTOM - AT SON’S WEDDING ]
difficult than TV. It is just “you and the microphone” and you have to “talk, talk,
and talk”; while with TV she feels more relaxed. She does admit that she enjoyed
the experience, especially when presenting the award-winning, late-night talk show
‘Minn Taht l-Ilsien’, in which she interviewed, ex-nuns, separated women, and among
others, women in business and politics. She describes the experience as “different
and very successful”.
In the seventies, Gloria was involved in the publication of a popular women’s magazine
called ‘Il-Mara tal-Lum’, based on her TV programme of the same name. Gloria
attributes the success of this now defunct magazine to the fact that it was published in
Maltese, and she laments the lack of Maltese magazines nowadays, commenting that
if we really want to keep the language alive, publishers ought to fill this void because
people hunger for information and many would prefer to have it in Maltese.
Steering the conversation onto the subject of Gloria the Person, I asked what it is
that she is most passionate about. The answer is quick – she mentions her family,
cooking, good company, a good book (she’s currently reading The Ambassador,
by former British MP Edwina Currie) and travel. She travels often, and nowadays
chooses mainly to visit her son in Switzerland, and is restricted from travelling too far
afield as she looks after her elderly mother.
Gloria’s favourite destination is North Africa in 1848, her ancestors left Zebbug to
join the Maltese communities in Tunis, Tripoli and Djerba). She was born in Tripoli
and lived there until she was 15 years old. She is obviously very fond of that part
of the world and is particularly fascinated by Egypt, where she recently joined an
expedition conducted by Robert Bauvall – an Egyptologist who frequently appears on
the Discovery Channel. He planned an expedition across the country accompanied
by many writers who have written about Egypt, all of whom gave lectures throughout
the trip, which of course made for a memorable journey.
Cooking is another passion of Gloria’s. She reminisces that her father was a very
finicky eater, so her mother used to cook a little bit of this and that in the hope that
he would like something – luckily this method was typical of North Africa(the famous
mizé). As a child, Gloria would accompany her mother to the market and see her
choose from the various types of fish, vegetables, and spices on offer. The seeds
of her enthusiasm for the art of cooking were sown then. While on the subject of
cooking, I asked her to comment on the fairly recent phenomenon of men cooking
at home and she remarked that since nowadays people remain single for longer
and are living alone, men have had to learn how to cook… and in the process have
discovered that it is great fun, though she jokingly adds that they still don’t clean
up! Gloria adds that the trend has also been helped in no small way by the recent
emergence of many celebrity chefs such as the likes of Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsey
et al.
As we brought our conversation to a close, I asked Gloria about her plans for the
immediate future. These include “Permettili” on Net Television in which she will be
interviewing politicians and other persons in authority in a very intimate way. She
will also have a short slot on Claudette Pace’s daily programme Sellili, so look out for
Gloria and her inimitable style on your television screens very soon… .
8 L&S | SEPTEMBER ’06