Have you been to Palermo?
Tastemakers: The Cheeky Chef, Shellfish Pasta Recipe, Timballo Recipe, and How to Plan Your Italian Wine Tasting Trip
Tastemakers: Linda Sarris, The Cheeky Chef
How did you make the decision to move to Sicily?
I like to believe Sicily chose me. I was just finishing up culinary school in NYC and wanted to go work abroad. A mentorship association I belonged to was offering scholarships in Spain, France, and Italy, so I sent in my application and my mentor in Sicily selected me! She ended up being the one-and-only Fabrizia Lanza, the most incredible culinary anthropologist with a cooking school on her family’s wine estate and I ended up coming here for just three months in 2011 to be her assistant. When the founder of the school, Anna Tasca Lanza, passed away in 2010, her daughter Fabrizia sponsored this scholarship in her honor. A woman I so sadly never had the chance to meet somehow laid out a whole new path for my life. Fabrizia was the key to everything, a love affair with the place I proudly call my home, an exciting food/wine paradise, and my adopted family here in Sicily.
Tell us about you and your company.
These days, I am a private chef who organizes culinary tours in Sicily. Each year, I design a limited list of weeklong tours available to solo travelers and small groups. In the spring, I co-host two programs in Sicily and the island of Pantelleria along with Peggy Markel’s Culinary Adventures. In summer, I lead tours for small groups of friends/family on sailboats and catamarans, also working as their private chef for the week in the Aeolian Islands. In October, I have a highly-coveted natural wine tasting program on the volcanic Sicilian island of Pantelleria in the deep south, near Tunisia. Outside of these programs, I host cooking lessons and chef-led market tours in Palermo, I’ve written two books, I cook for music writing retreats and artist residencies, and assist a few small family-run businesses here with their marketing and social media.
Walk us through a market tour in Palermo.
I lead 2-hour food tours in Palermo’s 1,000-year-old outdoor food market in Ballarò. This is a chef-led adventure, not a city tour (although I can also set them up for my clients). Small private groups can book this experience (in advance)…
The Cheeky Chef’s Shellfish Pasta with Tomatoes and Almonds
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Adi’s Anelletti Al Forno Alla Palermintana
Farmer Emmanuela breeds pedigree cows, produces a dried pasta range using heritage durum wheat, and runs an agriturismo called Masseria Acque di Palermo. ‘You must film my mother’s timballo!’ she declared, when she found out about Pasta Grannies. Her mother, Adi, was way too gracious a host to be startled by a film crew appearing on her doorstep the next morning to shoot Palermo’s classic Sunday-lunch dish.
How to Plan Your Italian Wine Tasting Trip
If you’re planning a wine tasting trip to Italy, it’s important to understand that the experience is quite different from what you might be used to in Napa or Sonoma. Worthwhile Italian wineries are typically much smaller and family-run, which can make for a more intimate and personal experience but require advanced planning. It’s easy to get into the largest, commercial wineries, but we prefer to skip those. Here’s what you can expect and what we recommend you do when planning a visit to a winery in Italy…
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