Your hosts and cooking instructors will be Elizabeth Wholey and Paola Cesari. Italian and English will both be spoken.
Elizabeth, a transplanted Californian, has cooked with Amore Sapore since 1996, enhancing her skills with classes in France, Sicily and Emilia Romagna, and with Walter Zanoni at the Italian Institute for Advanced Culinary and Pastry Arts. She is an avid vegetable and fruit grower – expect fresh zucchini flowers, tomatoes, figs and other treasures from her garden. A resident of Umbria for 18 years, she enjoys sharing her knowledge of Tuscany and Umbria with our guests, and when not cooking conducts culinary and craft tours, introducing visitors to the many artisans who still work in time-honored ways in the Upper Tiber Valley. She currently edits the newsletter Appetite for Travel for the Culinary Tourism Section of the International Association of Culinary Professionals , and she is the recipient of the Culinary Trust Julia Child Scholarship for Research in Italy, 2010-2011.
Paola, a Tuscan from nearby Sansepolcro, learned to make wonderful pastas and desserts from her mother and grandmother, and was one of few chosen to complete a special pastry course at the Bufalini School in Citta di Castello. She will show you how it’s done and share her family’s culinary secrets for creating such local specialties as ravioli gnudi, various types of risotto, and her famous panna cotta. While loyal to her roots, her travels throughout Italy have fueled her interest in other regional foods, and she brings to the table a rich repertoire of recipes.
Email the Cooks at: elizabethwholey@gmail.com