A fresh new beginning

I’m good at new beginnings. I’ve lived many lives so far. I am not one of those drama-loving women who indulge in drastic resolutions every new year, though I experienced a bunch of life-turning events which led me to undiscovered paths. There I found my new routines, my new passions, my new friends.

It’s always exciting to be able to refresh your life and embrace new adventures.

Tommaso helped me with Juls’ Kitchen since when we met, as he is a social media specialist, but now he is every day more involved, from the cleaning of the kitchen before and after a cooking class to teaching food writing workshops with me to developing new ideas, as our 2016 calendar. If I felt grateful when four years ago I managed to close the door behind me and leave a daily job which had become uninspiring, now I feel twice as blessed as the man of my life has also become Juls’ Kitchen partner in crime, an essential part of my job.

Some time has passed since my last post: I planned to write more during Christmas holidays but a nasty virus and some quality time spent with family and friends kept me first in bed and later outside to enjoy a mellow and sunny winter. I had time to think, to plan, to visit producers and to redefine our goals for this brand new year.

I’m not listing resolutions but projects which are already scribbled down on a paper, saved on my computer (and backed up twice on separate hard drivers as I tend to panic when it comes to photos and recipes) and shared over a cup of coffee with friends and family.

We’ll have soon a new space where to work, test recipes, take photos, film new video recipes and, not less important, gather our friends for pizza parties and leftover dinners (and I bet you can relate with me, especially when deadlines are close and assignments require more than a serving). You’ll hear more about this project in the following weeks, I’ll be sharing photos here and on social media. We might also launch a crowdfunding campaign in the following months to partially cover the expenses, so do not miss a post.

This will lead to new workshops – from food writing to food photography – and daily experiences with special themes as fresh pasta, cookies or beer. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay updated.

Speaking of newsletters, we’ve decided to enrich our offer: there will be a newsletter that you’ll receive every time a new post is published, so that you won’t miss a single recipe or story, a monthly newsletter which will resume what happened food-wise here on the blog and, and I’m especially proud of this one, Italians say it better, a bi-monthly newsletter focused on essential Italian cooking words which will help you to get into our gastronomical culture. Take a few moments to update your newsletter preferences here.

I’m working on a new cookbook which is due late this year. I’m researching, testing, photographing, loving the whole process again and again. It is more challenging than I was expecting, but every achieved step is rewarding. For the moment I’ll keep quiet about the book, but in the next months I’ll be able to reveal the subject and some behind the scene anecdotes.

(The Paugnano Cheese farm we will visit for our Cheese cooking class) 

We have new exciting cooking classes that perfectly represent our philosophy. Our cooking classes are hands-on, as I believe that we learn by doing – and after all it’s fun to knead your ball of pasta dough, isn’t it? To get to know Tuscany better, we visit local small-scale farms where we’ll have the chance to know some the best Tuscan products such as pecorino cheese, cinta senese porks, chianina cows, artisanal beer, wine and olive oil. Check here all the experiences we’ll be offering this year.

We’re planning also new tailor made food tours to Siena and Florence. You’ll discover more details soon.

This is everything for the moment, we had a slow beginning of the year and hopefully we’ll be able to keep this conscious rewarding pace even in the following weeks and months. How was the start of your fresh new year? Plans or projects? Tell me everything, I’m curious to know what’s simmering on the stove!