GoodCiao - Tuscan Recipes,Umbrian Recipes, Italian Recipes and USA Northwestern Recipes

Recipes Embracing the flawors of Tuscany, Umbria and Pacific Northwest

Foreward

Good Ciao! It’s a name that somehow aptly describes the essence of this book. It is both English and Italian. It‘s about the meeting and greeting of friends so happy to see one another. It says good food and good feelings and hopefully puts a smile on your face. Yes, it is all here, and here is why.
My husband Gerry and I have had the good fortune of meeting the very endearing Roberto Russo. He came into our lives during one of his culinary tours to our hometown of Seattle. Wanting to extend some Northwest hospitality, at Eileen Mintz’s suggestion, Gerry and I held a winemaker’s dinner at our restaurant, Salty’s on Alki Beach, to feature Roberto’s fabulous Tuscan and Umbrian cuisine paired with wines from his region. The evening titled “Under the Alki Moon,” was a deliciously huge hit. Most importantly we made a friend and a promise to visit him at his beautiful Parco Fiorito farm on the Tuscan/Umbrian border, just outside the city of Cortona.
When we did travel to Italy with our family and friends, it did not take us long to realize that our time with Roberto would become one of our most favorite experiences. The views, the food, the warmth of the Italian countryside cannot be matched. Roberto’s agriturismo is a piece of paradise. While the restored 16th century convent serves as a focal point and gathering spot for overnight guests, the charm of the countryside extends across Parco Fiorito’s 50 acres. All fruit needed for his wine and olive oil is grown on the property, which Roberto then crushes and bottles with pride. The ingredients he cooks with are
organically grown in the area, and the meats he serves are cured from the farm’s own livestock. Simply magnificent!
Even with the common threads of cooking and cuisine always present, Roberto’s primary focus is always on the experience of the guest. Roberto’s divine rural hospitality has the most amazing way of making you feel that you have come home when you visit him in Italy. It starts when you awaken to the wind blowing the curtains in the morning breeze and with the cacophony of sounds of farm birds singing in the day. It continues with a delicious Italian organic breakfast on the stunning veranda with its ceiling of a lattice of grapevines. The view is of the expansive vista of the Italian countryside. While all this is a superb start to your day, none of it compares to the greeting from Roberto. He has a way of making everyone feel that they are his most favorite guest. We were thrilled by his warmth and sincerity and struck by the parallel of what we are trying each day to create in our restaurants. The very name of our company is Happy Guests and our motto is A Happy Guest Is Our Success.
Roberto lives it and we work our hardest in our Salty’s restaurants to achieve this in every aspect of our guests’ experience whether they are at Alki Beach in Seattle, Redondo Beach in Des Moines, Washington, or on the Colombia River at our restaurant in Portland, Oregon.
A dear friendship has created a bridge between us and now we have traveled back and forth between Seattle and Italy, sending our chefs and friends to visit
Parco Fiorito. We have cooked together on both continents, in our homes and in our restaurants. We have been students at cooking classes with Roberto in Italy, as part of the Parco Fiorito experience, as well as having him teach and cook with our restaurants’ chefs in Seattle.
While enjoying this cookbook, we invite you to travel over our bridge and enjoy this unique friendship based in the love of food.
City hospitality and country hospitality, friends meeting, greeting and ciaoing that is what this cookbook is all about. Good food, lots of fun and hopefully for you a new group of recipes not only to try but also to fall in love with. If you ever come to visit the Pacific Northwest, we invite you to come and see us. If you are ever in Tuscany we highly recommend that you stay at Roberto’s Parco Fiorito. To our new friends who are reading and cooking
with this book, we say ...
Good Ciao!
--Kathryn Hilger Kingen