Mangia! Mangia! – Gelato Crostini Anyone?

One of the highlights of this summer was an invitation to spend two days at Carpigiani Gelato University, located just outside Bologna, on the historic Via Emilia, between Lavino di Mezzo and Anzola dell’Emilia.

48 hours of just thinking about gelato and, of course, tasting flavor after flavor of sorbet, semifreddo, granita, frozen yogurt, soft-serve, as well as, traditional Italian gelato.

At the Gelato Lab, Carpigiani’s freestanding high-tech gelateria, two brand new flavors of gelato were introduced to the world on July 20 during the presentation of the 2011 Gelato Pioneers (more about this later).

The two fascinating … Read More

Mangia! Mangia! – Ora d’Aria, a breath of fresh air

Ora d’Aria has been part for the Florentine restaurant scene for a few years, but was inconveniently located and mostly a secret of locals. Now relocated to the historic center in a modern but cozy space, the word is getting out and rave reviews are coming back.

The name, Ora d’Aria, refers to the “hour of air” or time spent by inmates exercising outdoors while serving a term in prison. But, perhaps, it also refers to the breath of fresh air this restaurant brings to the oft-stuffy Florentine insistence on how to cook and present traditional Tuscan recipes.

Chef-owner … Read More

Books, Books, Books – Secrets of My Tuscan Kitchen by Judy Witts

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

JUDY WITTS has published the 2,000th copy of her new cookbook SECRETS FROM MY TUSCAN KITCHEN.

To celebrate 25 years in Italy, Judy Witts Francini of Divina Cucina self-published the collection of recipes she used for the past 20 years at her cooking school in Florence and wrote about in her blog Over a Tuscan Stove.

The cookbook started out as a handwritten, spiral-bound, photocopied edition that she gave to her students.

In 2008, she took the time to recreate it as a more permanent collection and developed a blog to go with it.

There are almost … Read More