City of Matera, European Capital of Culture in 2019
Lately, it’s impossible to ignore, the sense that Southern Italy is not only about to have its moment, but that in many ways, it already is. Half of Lecce is under restoration: our prettiest church, the column that used to mark the end of the Appian...
new films from Italy – all about kitchen knives
Here at our cooking school in Italy, we're experimenting with short-subject films and have just completed a series of three about kitchen knives (all under 4 minutes). Enjoy them. Leave comments. Share them with your Italy-loving friends. We're (well, me) are doing them all by...
peaches in primitivo
Come summer here in Puglia, each of us of develops a strategy for keeping cool. For me it most often involves a 150 year old stoneware vessel kept the bottom of the refrigerator all through the summer months. In it you'll find peaches in primitivo,...
recent press
For the last 11 years we've had our fair share of favourable press but lately, something has changed. A few weeks ago we were in the New York Times for the third time in two years. The region was in The Guardian. The city of Lecce...
Australia loves the Salento and Puglia!
Recently there has a been a lot of literary interest in the food of the Salento, and in Puglia in general: I'll be publishing two books on the subject in the next two months. And last week a few Australian friends came by to take...
video: cooking in candle light in a castle in Italy.
We've been making a lot of videos lately. Here is one made for Italian television. It's the week of San Valentino, when we cook each dinner by candle light. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mI3P_Pkr80&feature=youtu.be If you want to get a hold of us, just respond to this email. We'd love to...
video: a lunch in southern italy
Here is another video, and this time you don't need any Italian language skills to enjoy it. play video 2013 calendar. We still have space for our December courses! Come see the Christmas lights in Italy, get your hands on first of the Salento's autumnal vegetables. 2014 calendar....
video: how to make the year's tomato sauce
Our tenth birthday came and went, the empty wine bottles filling the recycling bins. We're now officially ten years old, our youth giving away to a more mature school, however small we remain. Here is a short video shot for Italian television about our making of...
video about gelato: 7 minutes in the salento
Here is our very first self-produced video, this time, on how to make gelato at home. Producing a television show, even a 7 minute one, is trickier than it seems. First, there is no director to say things like, 'let's try that again, perhaps, you know,...
video from italy: a day in the life of a student
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-qFEZClNv0 Over the years we've received a lot of compliments about our school (we turn '10' in two weeks) but every once in a while we're asked something more or less like this: so what is the student experience like? What would it be like for...