Italia Reservations: Amore Sapore

The Cooks

Your hosts and cooking instructors will be Melchiorre Chessa and Elizabeth Wholey, a rare cooking team that offers the authenticity of local Italian cooking with the easy familiarity of American hospitality. English and Italian will both be spoken.

Melchiorre moved to Umbria from Sardinia when he was twelve years old, he still speaks the distinctive accents of his native island, and though locally popular, he has a spontaneity and joy of living that sometimes startle his more sober Umbrian neighbors. The oldest son in a large family, he learned his cooking at home, studying bread making (the famous Sardinian carta di musica bread is a family specialty), and cheese making (fresh ricotta and pecorino) from his father and mother. Soon, however, he took over the family kitchen, showing skill and an innovative instinct for cooking that amazed his relatives and friends. Developing his own trademark style, he drew both on the recipes of his Sardinian childhood and the varied cuisine of his new Umbrian home. Locally famous for this mixed cuisine, he also gained reputation as a dancer and singer. As you will see, cooking for Melchiorre is a form of reverent, yet exuberant performance. To help put his younger siblings through school, he worked in turn as a shepherd, woodsman, and farmer, learning about the life cycle of Umbrian plants and animals in the most thorough and exacting classroom. In more recent years, he has been able to spend the majority of his time on his great passion, cooking on a regular basis for foreign visitors, in the ancient tradition, but with a twist.

Elizabeth, an avid gardener, comes to cooking with a knowledge of home-grown vegetables, fruits and herbs. While Melchiorre concentrates on first courses like homemade ravioli, gnocchi and sauces, as well as meats and fish, Elizabeth specializes in making antipasti, vegetable dishes and desserts. She has lived in Umbria for eleven years and enjoys sharing what she has learned of the area and its gastronomic delights with visitors. She conducts Elizabeth Wholey's Art and Artisan Tours, and is a member of the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). She has co-authored the cookbook, Shepherd to Chef, with Melchiorre, available in Summer 2004.

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