Back in our home… far away from Home!

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Los Angeles, January 13th 2010

Me, Deb and the Girls are speechless. This trip to Florence has been the hardest so far, in what is now almost a decade of back and forth; everything worked out fine at the end, but if you follow us on Twitter, I am sure you had a chance already to laugh with us about our Christmas Tuscan Experience. We landed in Florence on December 18th, at dusk… the snow started falling the moment we exited the airport. By the time we approached the last few turns right below Fiesole, our rental car had to be parked on the side of the street, and got snowed in for the next four days. Continue Reading…

The Italian Food Heritage Program

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Since the website, in its new version, has been launched, I have been receiving many emails and messages; some of them are congratulatory, some are just friendly notes of appreciation, a few requests have been made for future episodes and recipes to be featured on these pages…
I am extremely pleased with the outcome of the transition from my old blog to this more refined and updated platform, and so it seems are most of you visiting my virtual kitchen.
Something happened though, in the past few weeks, that made a light bulb go off in my head. Continue Reading…

Tango and Limoncello!

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It already has been a full two months of dancing, and I am so proud of my Wife!
I have to be honest, I always knew she had some groove within, even if the only times I ever saw her dancing in the past she was hustling with her gay friends… Now, it’s a whole different ball-game, as she has discovered pretty quickly after starting her training with Maks.
Days are melting for us in Lala, as Debi is always at the dance studio or on stage for her performances: we miss her a bit, but we could not be more proud and excited. Continue Reading…

Dancing our way out of Hollywood!

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The word is finally out!
Early in the am on Monday, ABC’s Good Morning America announced the list of the competitors for the 9th season of Dancing With The Stars and yes, Debi is set to hit the dance-floor on September 21st 2009.
Debi’s partner is Maks, and they promptly started training some Salsa steps: I see a lot of healthy lunch boxes and foot massages in my immediate future (the new dancing shoes need to be broken in)! Continue Reading…

Gabriele Vs Martha

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I am pissed!
I wish I could write this post in Italian, my native language…Oh it would come out so much more colorful!
By now you should know, I am “some sort” of a quiet guy, I do not like to lash out at people, I never ever dished anybody on these pages (well, not completely true) but still…
Let me start from the beginning.
About a year ago, for Valentine’s Day, Debi bought me a cook book: “Martha Stewart’s Cookies”.
The bottom of the first cover reads: “The very best treats to bake and to share”…. “What a fantastic idea”, I told myself, since I had just got my new Thermador stove, and my baking frenzy was already in full swing.
Without indulging any further, I started flipping through the pages, mesmerized by the pictures, impressed by the simplicity of the publication… Still talking to myself: “This is going to be a lot of fun!”. Continue Reading…

An update on the “L’Aquila Earthquake Relief Fund”

We finally received the total count of the money we were able to raise during the L’Aquila Eathquake Event: as you might remember we hosted a fundraiser at the Ferragamo store in Beverly Hills at the end of May. Our shared effort with Global Giving, Ferragamo, and our celebrity eBay auction secured a total of $103,264!!! We are thrilled by the outpour of generosity, and we hope this little chunk of money will help feed or provide shelter to as many people as possible. Continue Reading…

More History and Food from Florence.

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Florence, June 24th 2009.
It is San Giovanni (Saint Joseph), and like any year Florence is in turmoil!
The celebration of the city’s Patron is an event taken very seriously: everything shuts down, only restaurants and souvenirs stands are open for business.
Many will spend the day cooking an incredible dinner, to be enjoyed with friends, before taking a stroll along the Arno River for the fireworks show. Continue Reading…

Summer in Fiesole

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It is almost the end of July, and our summer vacation is already over…which hurts!
As a family we travelled to Italy, visited our relatives in Fiesole and started taking the first steps for our “Big Move”.
We finished renovating the roof and the facade of “The Pink House“, not without some hard core contractors’ Italian style drama, we enrolled the kids in the local Public School, we finally finished producing our first batch of samples for Debi’s Olive Oil Organic Cosmetic Line and shipped them to the US and, last but not least, we dove into local bureaucracy and started applying for EU financing to be used to expand our Olive Grove and recoup the old vineyard. It was not a real vacation indeed, but a brutal tour de force to get things in order and lined up for our arrival… We still have to figure out the hot water situation in the house though, got to hurry up with that, or the girls will make my winter a living hell. Continue Reading…

“L’Aquilia Earthquake Relief Fundraiser”

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A month ago, when L’Aquila was almost obliterated by the biggest earthquake Italy has experienced in the past century, Debi and I reached out to our neighbors in Fiesole, the Ferragamo Family. We wanted to see if there was any way we could join forces and help, in the only way we could from here, by raising money to send to all those affected by the disaster. Our idea was immediately welcomed, and the Ferragamo store on Rodeo Drive in Los Angeles was offered to us as a location for the event, now set to be held on Tuesday the 2nd of June 2009. Continue Reading…