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03/14/2006 Archived Entry: "Cook at Seliano This Summer"

Because, over the last few years, I have had a number of requests for a summer session of Cook at Seliano, my Italian culinary vacation program, Cecilia, my partner, and I are setting aside the third week of July for a group. That would be arrival on Sunday, July 16, and departure on Saturday, July 22.

We haven’t conducted any summer sessions since our very first in August 2001 for no other reason than the hot summer weather in southern Italy. Now, however, all of Seliano’s guest rooms have air-conditioning, and, in fact, our kitchen doesn’t ever get murderously hot because it is in an ancient building designed to stay comfortable during the hot season.

I am also very pleased to announce that we have reduced our rates – not just for the summer, but in general. The cost now, with everything included except air-fare and transfer transportation from the airport (you arrange the flights, we can arrange picking you up), is $2,950.

We increased the price when the dollar’s value plummeted. The dollar is still not as strong as it was when we started. Now each euro is worth about $1.22, but we have rolled back the price to where it was when the euro and dollar were of equal value. So, in a way, that’s a 20 percent discount from 2001. I know, because I have done my homework, that we are among the least expensive and most luxurious of culinary vacations in either France or Italy.

Our groups are limited to 12 people. Very intimate. And I am with you from breakfast through night cap (of limoncello, of course). We do three half-day cooking sessions, filling the remaining afternoons or mornings with visits to the dairy where they make the mozzarella di bufala, to the famous ancient Greek temples of Paestum – just down the road – to a friend’s aristocratic home for a reception, to a nearby winery, or a dried fig production, or an olive oil press – it depends on the season. On two days, we travel – to the nearby Amalfi coast (usually Ravello), to a nearby fishing town, to the hills of Avellino – like that.

ITALIAN ROOTS TOUR
Also, I should mention, that my first Italian Roots tour will be from September 28 to October 9. I have planned the trip around one family, which hails from Accettura, in the province of Matera, in the region of Basilicata, which is next door to Campania, where our farm base is. But other people/families are welcome to join us if the itinerary fits. We will be touching three regions – Campania, Basilicata and Puglia.

We will spend the first weekend at Tenuta Seliano, doing some cooking and touring, then on Monday we’ll head for Accettura. We’ll stay in nearby and very picturesque Matera for two nights (in a hotel with “domiciles,” otherwise known as rooms, built into Matera’s famous caves, the sassi), then head to Lecce, which is a fabulous Baroque city in Puglia, near the tip of Italy’s stiletto heel. On the way, or on our way back to Paestum, we’ll stop in Alberobello, where Puglia’s famous trulli are clustered (trulli are ancient domed farm buildings), and in Barile, where the very fashionable wine, Aglianico del Vulture, is made. I also know a great restaurant in Barile, where the food is local and traditional, but presented in as sophisticated and contemporary a manner as anything in New York City. Besides a winery visit, we’ll visit cheese productions (mozzarella, burrata, pecorino), an artisan textile workshop, a town full of pottery workshops, an ancient bakery in Altamura, where they make world-famous semolina bread, and … well, there are always surprises. Naturally, we will eat, drink and laugh a lot.

If anyone wants to tag along, we have some room on the bus. Perhaps your family was from one of these places, and you just want to see generally the land of your people. Perhaps you just want to see the south of Italy with three great guides – Cecilia, me, and Bob Harned, who is an archeologist and cabaret singer. What a combo! (Check out his website: Pink and Blue Music. Remember Bob? I used to use his music on Foodtalk. Now all those songs – Candlelight and Wine, Scotch and Soda, If I Knew You Were Coming …, Mangos, Papayas – are on a CD he calls “Eat, Drink, and Be Singing).

If you are interested in either trip -- July Cook at Seliano, or late September Italian Roots – or, for that matter, if you are interested in coming to Seliano anytime in September or October, when I will be ensconced there, please let me know as soon as possible. We have two week-long sessions planned, but I can also do single day (with or without an overnight) excursions (with or without hands-on cooking).

Please respond through the email address CookatSeliano@aol.com.