Learn Italian as you Cook Italian!
An immersive experience in cooking and speaking Italian
The Italian Experience was born out of the desire of its founder, Adele Binelli, to pay tribute to the wonderful cooking skills of her late mother, Giselda-Gissy. Adele, a language teacher with a PhD in Linguistics, is passionate about her Italian roots, and it was through her desire to share that passion with others that this concept was created.
Mom Giselda
Giselda was born in 1938 Italy at the beginning of World War II. Though never suffering of complete lack of food, Giselda was deprived of a proper diet as the limited provisions were rationed. The times were hard and Giselda had an early recollection - at 4 years of age - of part of her home being burned down by the enemy Forces.
Giselda
Giselda was born in 1938 Italy at the beginning of World War II. Though never suffering of complete lack of food, Giselda was deprived of a proper diet as the limited provisions were rationed. The times were hard and Giselda had an early recollection - at 4 years of age - of part of her home being burned down by the enemy Forces.
Giselda was a quiet yet strong child who could cope with the adversities of the War. In spite of this adjustable personality, she would always carry with her, throughout her life, an almost ever impending necessity to have plenty of food stored in the pantry. She started cooking very early in her teens, not just for her but for her parents as well. Soon she became proficient in making delicious pasta and risotto dishes, her hands quick in making the beast shapes of gnocchi and so much more.
Giselda passed on this love for cooking to her only daughter, Adele. Every Friday Gissy and Lele (Adele) worked the perfect dough to make either pasta or pizza.
A pot & a wooden spoon
A pot & a wooden spoon
Cook in a simple way, no expensive utensils nor long ingredients lists. Backtrack to times past when cooking was a daily necessity and it was not complicated. And when cooking brought families together every day. There were no financial substances to afford anything more than the basics, yet Giselda was always an excellent cook, proving
Cook in a simple way, no expensive utensils nor long ingredients lists. Backtrack to times past when cooking was a daily necessity and it was not complicated. And when cooking brought families together every day. There were no financial substances to afford anything more than the basics, yet Giselda was always an excellent cook, proving that intricated cooking equipment and a big kitchen are not needed to make perfect meals. Each time she served lunch and dinner, made of fresh ingredients every day, Giselda said with a beautiful smile: “It’s because I cook with my heart.”
Giselda never used measuring cups.
We cook and we learn!
How a typical event works:
Either in person or on Zoom we come together and we start lining out the ingredients as we sip some wine. When we start cooking it's when the Italian lesson begins, starting from the vocabulary and verbs used during any given event. It's all being filmed - you will later get not only the recipe of the dish prepared (both in Italian and in English), but also a video highlighting the crucial moments of the event so to go back to it if you forget anything.
We prepare the food
We chop, we mix, we sip wine, we laugh, we use our hands and very few tools.
We enjoy a basic Italian lesson
While keeping an eye on the stove we learn the very basics of the Italian language, i.e. the three main verb conjugations and the concept of gender and number in nouns, adjectives and adverbs.
And you get the recipe of the event in English&Italian!
Not what we have, but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.
Epicurus
A different language is a different vision of life.
Federico Fellini
