Transformational Years
The magical balancing act of self-employment in Italy.
Welcome to my seventh post of my culinary memoir-
Simply Divina: Becoming Italian One Recipe At A Time.
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Markets of Italy, 12 guides to 12 cities and their markets ( on Thatch app)
My ebook- Secrets From My Tuscan Kitchen.
Cook along with me and become a little more Italian every day.
When I first wanted to start teaching cooking, I wasn’t allowed a work permit as the job didn’t exist. Often, in Italy, when dealing with red tape, you just need to keep asking the question until you get the desired answer. Eventually, I did get my permit, and it wasn’t even written down what the permit was for, so that let me be creative!
I started teaching cooking classes in 1988, and they grew and evolved. The classes were on the school schedule, so there was a lot of downtime during semester breaks when I wouldn’t have any work. I used that time to do research and travel.
Travel has always inspired me
I worked with an online coach who told me that whatever you do, you should be able to use it in at least three ways to make money.
For example, a trip to Naples:
Writing an article
Teaching a cooking class
Giving a lecture
Catering
I took that to heart and put it into action. When I visit somewhere new, I come home with recipes and photos to document the trip. The information can be about travel, eating, or history. This helped me turn the cooking classes into something more.
My start was the evening cooking classes for the study abroad students. Another school heard about them and asked me to teach for them. Eventually, I was teaching five nights a week.
The second school asked me to create another class for credit. I had been studying the history of food in Florence and created a Culture through Cooking class, which was a semester program that included lectures and recipes.
I wanted to start bringing over groups for weeklong programs and suggested the school create a culinary study abroad program. It was what I had looked for and couldn’t find. Unfortunately, the person I had been speaking with about all my ideas took the idea and ran with it, not including me in the project. Live and learn.
Being self-employed is always a challenge but can be so rewarding. I created my dream life here. I have built a community of culinary friends that are now my family.
How do I research?
Often, I start with “Posso fare una domanda?”- May I ask a question? I think it drives my husband crazy. It’s just not something that Italians do. I persist.
I often put my foot in my mouth here in Italy. When you move to another country, you must learn the language and etiquette. There are many things you are not supposed to ask. I do think that being openly inquisitive is an American trait. I am hopelessly curious. I want to know everything.
I find that so much information in Italy, especially about recipes and food, is passed on by word of mouth. If you don’t ask, you won’t learn. I don’t stop at one answer and ask the same question to as many people as possible. Recipes often change from family to family. I build my repertoire of recipes by reading as many books and magazines as possible and asking many people for their versions.
I think back on how I have done my research in the past.
I am from the preinternet age! We used libraries and encyclopedias and kept notes on index cards. I still have a recipe box with handwritten recipes. As a pastry chef, I kept notebooks, which is how I have continued here in Italy.
Travel mainly involved using guidebooks. I used Frommers—Europe for $5 a day on my first trip. Today, for research, I head online and filter through many articles, both in English and Italian. I prefer using Italian guides to search out artisans and off-the-beaten-track places rather than guidebooks written for Americans.
I was in heaven when I expanded from simply teaching classes to including culinary travel. My favorite part is the research and development of the tours. I travel to meet the chefs, farmers, and artisans and check out the local markets.
It was the beginning of a new side to my work.