“To really learn how to cook like a Tuscan, you must cook with a Tuscan nonna”, I said to Susan Van Allen, an American writer, whose interests are focused on Italy and women travels. Susan was born with Italian genes (her maternal grandparents came to the USA from Molise and Potenza). She grew up eating like an Italian - smelling lasagnas and listening to family dramas, which ignited a passion in her that inspired her to travel to Italy in 1976. Since then she has continued to explore the country and write about it in a popular guidebook 100 Places In Italy Every Woman Should Go.
In fact, when travelling around Italy, you do not need to be trained or work out, but just to open your senses wide and breathe: to listen to women chatting and arguing over ‘too-much-less-salt-in-pasta’, sniff the air as it fills with garlic, pepper and olive oil sizzling in the pan, contemplate gestures as simple as throwing a pinch of salt in water, to savour the outcome of such dramatic process… Susan approached me with such enthusiasm asking about a cookery class to arrange for her group of ladies. They were spending a week in the Chianti area in a luxury country resort enjoying visiting Florence and small towns, as well as olive picking during the harvest. There was not much to be unveiled to her around Italy and Tuscany, therefore I cast my card betting on ‘authenticity’ and ‘spontaneity’: cooking with nonnas like Italian do! Read on Wall street International journal
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