NEW FOR 2008!

Join our continuous programme of cookery sessions in 2008 -

In partnership with our chef Gianluca Pardini we are offering cookery sessions for keen cooks Monday to Friday, throughout the year excepting August. The cookery sessions take place every morning and cost 70 euros per person, including all food and wine.

GIANLUCA PARDINI - OUR CHEF

We are very fortunate to have Gianluca as our teaching Chef. Our guests have all found him to be charming and great fun to work alongside.

As a good Italian boy he did what his parents wished and pursued a degree in History of Art and Design but by the age of 14 he was already shaping his true career in the kitchen, working holidays and weekends in local restaurants of his home town in the Versilia. From 1976 he became a full time Chef, first in Florence's prestigious Hotel Excelsior, then in Orleans (France). By 1984 he was restaurant manager in Siena, on its famous Piazza del Campo before owning and running the renowned 'Mecenate' in Lucca for ten years.

During these years as chef and restaurant owner he spent time as a gastronomic consultant for a Tokyo-based company which in 1989 led to the establishment of the Academy Bunryu, Siena, where he played the dual role of director and coordinating chef. He remains a frequent guest speaker, teacher and consultant at important cooking academies and restaurants in Japan and the USA. Among his qualifications is that of Honorary Professor at Chicago's Du Page College and Honorary Member of the Society of Friends, Escoffier.

More recently he developed the International Academy of Italian Cuisine, based in Lucca, extending his international Japanese/USA clientele. This initiative has been enriched by a strong re/awakening in Tuscany of its gastronomic culture, the concept of 'slow food', and the interested support of local restaurateurs. Moving easily from the Italian language into English, French or Japanese Gianluca has the wit, charm and a deep knowledge of his craft which makes his lessons informative and entertaining. And the meal that follows your cookery session is a great sociable event.

OTHER ARTICLES

Pizza Al Fresco, John Bonallack My Place in the Sun, Berenice Bonallack