KEEP CALM and COOK with CHICCA (and Denise)
I'm so excited to announce that I'm entering into a dream partnership with my dear friend Chicca Maione from Cooking in Tuscany. Starting in April I’ll be an official partner and the co-host of Chicca’s Cooking Club. I’d love for you to come and check out our Free Flour Gnocchi online class on April 1st. This is an amazing homemade pasta dish that is as easy as it is delicious. Soooo, It wouldn’t be me without a story.
Soooo, it wouldn't be me without a story...here’s how this soul-sister partnership began.
I met Chicca in 2017 when my cousins Angie and Cindy and I went to Tuscany. My friend Gina Lorubbio, who I met at Camp GLP (Good Life Project) did a Workaway stint at Chicca’s Cooking in Tuscany School, suggested I reach out to Chicca to book some classes and stay in one of her two apartments in her beautiful Farmhouse in Castagneto Carducci.
I did just that, we booked the apartment and four cooking classes. We spent five wonderful days at the La Casa Toscana with Chicca and Arnaud cooking, sharing stories and feeling like family. Chicca and I were fast friends. We joked that we were just like sisters.
Fast forward a few years
When the pandemic hit Chicca took her in-person classes online and created Chicca's Cooking Club with another pair of good friends Jedd and Michelle Chang. I met the Changs during WDS, we spent five years working together to plan the last four WDS events. Jedd and Michelle also did a Workaway stint with Chicca. After a few months of successful live online cooking classes there were requests for corporate classes, Jedd and Michelle reached out to me to partner with Chicca to host those classes.
Chicca’s Cooking Club has been going strong for three years and continues to grow. I am so very grateful to Jedd and Michelle who have passed the Club torch to me as they start traveling and working more frequently around the world.
Getting to partner with Chicca to bring Italian home cooking to folks all over the world is another dream come true for me. I find my joy in the kitchen. It’s the gift my Mom gave to me. I believe that is where she manifests herself in my life. I’ve always loved to cook, but since we lost her to breast cancer there seems to be a greater purpose for me while I’m doing it. I can remember how Mom was in the kitchen, so happy, humming and buzzing around. She got great pleasure seeing her friends and family enjoy one of her well-cooked meals, appetizers and oh yes, her famous Peach Cheesecake. Her love for cooking has found its way to me and now I have another way to bring people together with food through Chicca’s Cooking Club.
Look for another email from me as we kick-off membership sales to the new season of Chicca’s Cooking Club on April 1st with our Free Flour Gnocchi online class. I would love to see some of your faces on my screen.
KEEP CALM and COOK with CHICCA (and Denise).
