Acquacotta giveaway + new workshops and events!

I have been busy preparing and organising some new, exciting things, from cooking classes to a workshop in beautiful Puglia in southern Italy, even a little online shop (coming soon)! I’ve decided to put it all in a blog post to have in one place. And to celebrate, I’ve also got some copies of my new cookbook, Acquacotta, to giveaway to five lucky (Australia-based) readers! (Would you like a sneak peek? There is a collection of favourite recipes here on Cooked). Read on for more.

Events:

Rome, Saturday 17 June, 2017 — Acquacotta Cooking Class

Join me at the Latteria Studio, a bright, wonderful, intimate cooking space in Trastevere, where we will prepare and cook together some favourite summery, Maremman recipes from my new cookbook (such as the handrolled strozzapreti below, a bright salad from Giglio Island, seafood stew and melon granita) around a table like old friends. Lunch (our masterpieces) will follow. The class and lunch cost 100 euro ($140 Australian dollars). Very limited spots — book here.

Florence, Thursday 22 June, 2017 — Florentine & Acquacotta Florence launch

Betty Soldi and Matteo Perduca, the charming and dynamic duo behind Soprarno Suites, Adastra, And Company and Sottarno, a charming new cafe in Florence’s Santo Spirito area, are hosting an author talk with nibbles inspired by my cookbooks, Florentine & Acquacotta. The evening will start with a glass of wine and involve a conversation with me & Matteo about Florentine and Tuscan food traditions and end with mingling and eating. More information for booking coming soon.

Tuscany, 6 July, 2017 — A summer evening with Tessa Kiros & Emiko Davies

Join me and my cookbook hero, Tessa Kiros, for an intimate and casual chat about cookbook writing, travel and the food it leads us to, in the magical garden of Canto Del Maggio, in Tuscany’s Valdarno valley (between Florence and Arezzo). A buffet around the pool, with drinks, will feature recipes out of our latest cookbooks. Tickets 30 euro. For bookings, contact Simona Quirini, +39 339 26416 72 or simoqui@me.com

Workshops:

I’m very excited to be working on several wonderful projects coming up this year with some very inspiring, creative colleagues — more details to follow very soon with their own dedicated blog posts, but if you are thinking of being in Florence or Puglia in October 2017 and want to eat, explore, create, and be inspired with like-minded people, keep an eye out here for more details by the end of the month!

Pictured throughout this post are images from an Acquacotta inspired one-day workshop I did with the amazing Sophie Hansen of Local is Lovely in her hometown, Orange in country New South Wales. We were based at The Old Convent, run by Josie Chapman, where we cooked, styled, photographed and talked about how to create stories, recipes and how to connect on social media channels with an enthusiastic group of 15 people.

We started with an introduction over coffee, visited a beautiful fruit orchard where we had morning tea with treats from my cookbook under the dappled light of fig trees and picked apples, then we had a delicious lunch prepared by Josie (wow, I could eat her food all day every day), and afterwards we dove into some recipe demonstrations, shooting and styling, in smaller groups. There was an hour at the end of the workshop for another coffee, some homemade biscotti made from my cookbook and a Q&A.

Keep your eyes peeled on my events page for more things like this! And Sophie’s excellent line up of workshops can be found here.

Now, to the exciting part!

Giveaway:

So much love went into the making of my latest cookbook, Acquacotta, which tells the stories behind the cuisine of an under-discovered part of southern Tuscany, a corner of the wild and rugged Maremma (here is a post on the “behind the scenes” of the making of it).

I’d love to share some of this love by giving away five copies of my cookbook to some lucky readers (sorry but this is only open to Australian residents at this time!). All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post saying where in the world you’d love to be transported to just to eat the food for a day!

You have until midnight, June 3rd to enter, I will announce winners here and on instagram on June 5th, 2017!