ABOUT
For the first time, Renee learns how to make sun dried tomatoes in Noto, Sicily.
About Renée Restivo:
Renée Restivo is a cooking instructor, well-known culinary guide and writer whose work is widely admired. Her articles about Sicily and cooking schools have been published in National Geographic Traveler, and she appeared as a local guide on the Travel Channel on a show about Sicilian fishing traditions. Renée’s passion for Italian regional food led her to be selected as TV Spokesperson for top-selling The Silver Spoon cookbook, and she has appeared on Rick Steve’s National Radio show to discuss traveling and eating in Italy and Italian regional cooking. She has taught Italian regional cooking extensively in the United States and Italy, lectured about Mediterranean cooking at the New York Public Library, and has been invited as a guest speaker for special events and celebrations for national organizations.
Her story began with the search for her paternal roots in Sicily, where she longed to meet her relatives and search for lost recipes that her great Aunts Sadie and Millie lovingly prepared for her when she was a little girl and spent many weekends at Restivo family reunions in Astoria, Queens. This search for lost recipes led her to discover that the Restivo family still owns and works a farm in southern Sicily, just minutes from the Valley of the Temples. A few years ago, Renée’s uncle proudly presented the family’s heirloom vineyards to her, and she enjoyed their heavenly wine with them. Those vines have been ripped from the earth and replaced by crops that enable the family to make a living as farmers. This personal story inspired Renée to search for ways to educate people about Sicily’s agricultural traditions, rare indigenous crops and the disappearing recipes and culinary traditions on the island. She offers this in her week long culinary programs with Il Sole a Tavola and Soul of Sicily.
Renée has traveled extensively in Sicily and throughout the Mediterranean, and lived in Palermo, Agrigento and Noto, which is now her base. She chose Noto for its agriculture, landscape, traditions, people and last but not least…its pastries! Renée got her start as special events Chef and recipe tester for La Cucina Italiana magazine in New York, where she enjoyed cooking hundreds of recipes for the magazine’s pages and covers, and immersed herself in learning about Italy’s regional products and culinary traditions. She studied food at New York’s Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health and the New School’s Professional Culinary Program. Soon after, she landed a dream job as Chef Instructor at cooking school in Tuscany, in the middle of thousands of olive trees. But her real dream was in Sicily…to launch her own authentic culinary adventures Soul of Sicily LLC and Il Sole a Tavola.
Renée’s love for local seasonal ingredients began as a child, when each year she went to pick apples or raspberries at her mom’s favorite country market in Colts Neck, New Jersey. Her mom baked from scratch every day and her grandmother raised her on home-made chicken soup and home-cooked meals. Renée’s aunt had a large farm in Texas and shared seasonal home cooked recipe with her when she grew up. Most of the apple orchards Renée enjoyed as a child have disappeared by now, but in Italy Renée found a lost agricultural landscape that she craves and holds so close to her heart.
Her mentors include the late Anna Tasca Lanza, who Renée assisted for a book of rare fruits in Sicily. In 2004, she began to offer farm to table culinary tours and cooking programs, in-home cooking lessons and to educate the public about unique Sicilian ingredients. In addition to offering culinary programs, Renée works as a consultant for authors who are working on Sicily projects. Her mission is to teach people about the importance of the Sicilian agriculture through her love for Sicilian cooking and local seasonal foods prepared on the island. “We must honor our shepherds, fishermen and farmers help them to care for their land in Sicily. Each choice we make — especially when traveling to the island can make a difference and leave a positive effect on this ancient land.” she says. People often ask Renée “how she got to do what she does in Italy” or the secret to living your dream. She gives them all the following simple and true advice, “the secret is lots of hard work, perseverance, love for what you do and believing in yourself and in miracles no matter what anyone tells you!”