From Plate to Page. A creation of four great minds and skills. A three day workshop where writing, talking, styling and photographing is centred on food. In the end you get much more than that. There is great location, new faces to meet, the chance to style and photograph with like minded people and fabulous props, to name but a few of what goes on. We tucked ourselves away at Il Salicone, a gem of a villa in Pistoia. Somewhere in Tuscany.
When I think about our instructors all that comes up to my mind is humour as they had plenty, encouragement, positivity, generosity and honesty in their feedbacks. Four very approachable lassies who made themselves available to each and everyone of us at all times. We became partners in that weekend journey which was a starting point in a long term trip. They are – in no special order:
- Ilva Beretta from Lucullian Delights
- Jamie Scheler from Life’s a Feast
- Jeanne Horak Druiff from CookSister!
- Meeta Khurana-Wolff from What’s for lunch honey?
The twelve women (there were no male attendants in this one event), were all very unique, noisy , loud and funny. Above all they were very honest and open. The masks that one has sometimes to wear throughout life were put down. The exercises and activities asked that we bared our ‘words’ and ‘shots’ so that both could be deconstructed, evaluated, worked on and re-shaped. For the sessions on writing I felt that it did not matter what one native language was– we had quite a spectrum between us. The sessions were extremely important as they touched the way one expresses oneself in words. The photo & styling sessions allowed us all to practice and learn not only from the instructors but from each other. I had my greatest ‘enlightment’ moment with the help of Kate.
The meals were surrounded by a lot of activity in the kitchen in and around the pans. People moving around with their cameras, others helping out with the washing up, chopping, tidying up…or even just chatting. The sitting down around the table was informative, relaxed, funny and delicious. Ok, it is very likely that the prosecco bottles given by one of our sponsors and drank during meals also relaxed us all and introduced a lot of joy to those sessions. I miss the crowd and the lovely atmosphere when I’m in my tiny kitchen cooking by myself.
There was a bit of panic on my side as we were informed of the goodie bag awaiting for us. You see, I had not a small but pretty packed travel bag and could not for the life of me imagine trying to fit anything else in. The sponsors were truly generous and as much as the heavy Taste of Home binder weigh a bit on my arm as I walked around Florence killing time on my last day, I’m glad I brought it all the way back to Guildford. The other great goodies were beautiful and smartly packaged items by Smaromi – my favourite so far being the beautiful Tasmanian salt; the stunning looking pink Himalayan salt tile by Gourmelli; Oxo granted each one of us with one of their products ( mine was a silicone pastry brush); Sunchowder’s Emporia gave us an array of jam and mine is courgette and ginger (I promise you it is delicious and so far I’ve tried it with cheese;) a kitchen knife by the .gemini branded company ZWILLING J.A. HENCKELS (there can never be too many knifes in a cooks kitchen;) mild peppers by Peppadew International (I’ve been playing with the spicy little things and so far Hayley’s recommendation of the ricotta filled peppers has been the winning recipe); my return home dinner was with Riso Gallo’s memento; some matcha for my baking from Match Factory; a travel size bottle of Tabasco by no other than Tabasco and some needed vanilla extract by the family owned company Nielsen-Massey Vanillas. I have already mentioned the prosecco by Bisol, haven’t I?!
It is now slightly over a week since I returned and I have the fondest memories of a great weekend where I made new friends. Since then I have read some lovely blog posts written by the people who took part in the weekend. I have also cooked some good recipes which are Il Salicone related. I toast to a wonderfully put together and ran event and the best thing I have done in 2011. Do check out other posts about the Plate 2 Page in Tuscany as well as the P2P webpage.
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Val – love your post and miss you lots! I’m so glad you managed to bring the book back 🙂
Hope to see you soon!
E xox
Oh darling, so am I. Initially I thought of leaving it at the train station as it was so heavy. However, I persevered. Also glad I brought the box bag with all the goodies inside it – thanks to you as I wanted to leave the box behind. Only once I got back and unpacked did I really realize how lucky we were with all the amazing items we got. Miss you too – your warmth and immense generosity. Hopefully we can meet up again next year.
What a fantastic group you were, the dynamics between you all were perfect, I must say that we are really lucky with the people choosing to come to our P2P workshops and not to talk about all the nice people we get to knw-like you dear Valentina-you made P2P special! Love the photos too!
Ilva the group was really special. I think that it worked well for everybody. I can be very self concious in environments I do not feel comfortable in but this time it was just easy. Bliss!! I already knew Meeta from a different event in London. She is just a wonderful girl, so generous. You , Jamie and Jeanne were truly just the icing on the cake. I’ll keep in touch. x
Beautiful post Valentina! Miss your laughs and hugs- all the smiling faces. You are an inspiration. Look forward to keeping in touch!
Sweet Lynn, you are just too generous!! Let’s work at keeping in touch. Miss your lovely self.xx
Gorgeous post – it all looks so relaxed and glamorous, almost like we were on holiday and not working at all 😉 Lovely to have had your excellent company and gorgeous smile in Tuscany – look forward to meeting up in London soon! xx
Valentina, when you registered for this P2P I was truly over the moon. It was so great to have you part of this group and so glad to read your thoughts hear. We did work you all very hard but you were a powerful group full of energy and creativity. You capture it all so well in this post!
“… glad to read your thoughts hear” !!! here! UGH!
Amazing. You have some truly stunning blogs.
Thank you. Your blog is my favourite, daily reading material.