An Amanti festa is a hands-on, all-day cooking and dining event focused on one of Italy’s twenty regions. In the weeks preceding any festa all members conduct research into the selected region’s wine and food specialties as well as its cooking techniques and food festivals. A final menu is drawn up and printed and the responsibility for each dish is allocated amongst Amanti members as well as our participating guests.
Ingredients for any Amanti festa must be raised, grown or produced locally or imported from the subject region of Italy. While we are known to be ambitious, we endeavor to follow the culinary principle, “Sempre fresco e sempre simplice” (Always fresh and always simple). Amanti Della Cucina thus embraces the universal appeal of all regional Italian cuisines and their ability to nurture the spirit and warm the heart
Amanti feste include not only cooking and consuming superb food and wines but often performing live regional music or giving a travelogue, art, architectural or historical presentation about the region being celebrated. In every case, an Amanti festa will transport you for a moment in time to one of the glorious regions of Italy.
Food is culture. What we eat and drink, how it is prepared and how it is consumed define who we are. In Italy food and wine festivals possibly draw more people and attention than most major sporting events. They can take over a town or region drawing people both locally and globally.
Every Spring there is an Amanti expedition to the forests outside the city to gather porri for our festival of the wild leek – sagra del porro. For once this Amanti festival may involve a Toronto restaurant such as Posticino, Grano, Boccaccio or La Fenice.
At our sagra di maiale/pork festival, we make pounds of delectable quality sausage and prepare a variety of sausage dishes, some as simple as salsiccia e rapini alla Campania or salsicce al vino Friulano.
Naples and pizza margherita are almost synonymous. Every year there are numerous pizza festivals throughout the region of Campania. Here in Toronto, Amanti Della Cucina has its own annual sagra della pizza where one of our members who put himself through law school by tossing pizza dough demonstrates his skill as a near expert pizzaiolo.
For generations Italian culinary heritage embraced an oral tradition where cooking knowledge and skills were passed on through the maternal line to each succeeding generation. Life was more far more rural and agrarian. Typically several generations lived together under one roof. One of our founders recounts his early life in southern Italy and his grandmother’s culinary influence,
“My nonna used to send me to the pollaio to get eggs … and the next thing you know the pasta came out, or something else delicious. It was always fresh!”
Today Italian culinary heritage is in serious jeopardy as a result of progressive urbanization coupled with major technological and societal changes. It is further threatened by processed and fast foods that exacerbate a faster pace of life and, we suggest, a diminished quality of life.
At Amanti Della Cucina our concern for the loss of a key component of regional Italian culinary heritage and traditions led us to initiate our Cucina della Nonna program where, in various formats, we document and record nonnas from the Italian-Canadian community preparing some of their favorite traditional family dishes.
Amanti Della Cucina cooking classes offer a unique learning experience and a chance to be transported for a moment in time to one of Italy’s glorious regions. All classes are hands-on. Attendees enjoy a sumptuous three-course regional meal including antipasti, a primo or secondo piatto and a choice of dolci. They also receive a copy of full recipes for each item prepared and our special Italian pantry guide – La Dispenza Fondamentale.
Chef instructors include our Maestro Flavio who is Italian born and trained as well as a product of the George Brown College Chef School. Our cooking classes can also be expanded with “ An Evening Tasting Italian Wines” presented by one of our Amanti who is a certified sommelier, an instructor for the Italian wines section of the Independent Wine Education Guild and Managing Director of a Toronto-based wine agency.
Our philosophy of sharing involves giving back to the community – both locally and globally. One of our founding members tells of his first Christmas in Canada after leaving his small hometown in Abruzzo.
“I was just eight years old and we had very little. My father was lucky to find us a rental just off College Street. On Christmas morning there were no gifts and almost nothing to eat. We were leaving for church and there outside our front door were boxes of toys, gifts and food. But there was no note, no way to tell who had been so kind.
In this same spirit of anonymous giving, Amanti Della Cucina holds an annual Christmas fundraising event. All proceeds are passed on anonymously. Financially stressed recipients have included university bursaries for performing students, victims of natural disasters, single parent families, new Canadians and underfunded social assistance programs.