Elaine Trigiani will treat participants to a virtual visit to Palermo with an art history talk and
cooking lesson direct from the kitchen of her 15th century farmhouse in Tuscany. We'll explore
the richly decorated monuments of Arab-Norman architecture built in the city of Palermo during
Norman rule in the 1100s, testimony to this period of exceptional cultural exchange, and we'll
make a couple of recipes with the layers of flavors the Sicilians are so famous for.
More about Elaine:
I moved to Italy for olive oil. For 20 years I have been living here, first in Sicily and now in
Tuscany, learning about olive oil and local culinary traditions from my Sicilian relatives
and from producers, farmers, home cooks and chefs.
I search for food and wine that reflect the territory and tradition of the place where it was
made. I travel around exploring, finding my way deep into the boondocks of Italy to hunt
out the artisan producers who make the foods that I like to eat, have a chat, tell them
thank you and pack up my car with tasty treats to bring back home. I live in a 15th
century farmhouse on the estate of a medieval castle. I love the beauty of the landscape
and the nooks and crannies of the little ancient villages and stumbling on works of art
that are still in the places for which they were made.
In 2005 I founded a sole-proprietor corporation called The della Donna Company that
allows me to offer programs that have a bit of all of this. The idea is to provide you with
the means to step into Italian culture by tasting typical foods and meeting the people
who make them while enjoying the beauty, the monuments and works of art, exploring,
learning, relaxing and taking it all in.
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