Cookbook Club in person event: Tuesday 30th July, 5.45pm - 6.30pm
with Roman food writer, Rachel Roddy
A real-life, in-person in-conversation with the brilliant Rome-based food writer whose multi-award winning debut cookbook Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome is 10 years old this summer.
Tuesday 30th July, 5.45pm - 6.30pm BST
at Opera Holland Park, London W8
Our theme this month with the cookbook club theme is the food and cookbooks of Italy. So for this IRL meet-up I will be talking with one of the best Italian cookbook writers around: Rachel Roddy - a Brit abroad who for many years now has been writing about Italian food from her home in the Testaccio area of Rome.
Over negronis all round, Rachel will be talking with me - with us - about how her love of Italian food mixes with a strong nostalgia for home and memories of growing up in England. We’ll discuss seasonality, market shopping, family cooking, and just what it is that makes Italian food and culture so connected.
Both Rachel and I will be signing books for sale on the evening: my Seasoning – How to Cook and Celebrate the Seasons and Rachel’s Five Quarters: Recipes and Notes from a Kitchen in Rome, which has just been reissued in a special edition to mark its tenth anniversary.
Tickets (and a negroni or two) are £5 or free if you buy a copy of either book on the night, and only available to paid subscribers to The Kitchen Bookshelf.
Paid subscribers can buy up to 2 tickets for this event.
Our conversation is taking place before Opera Holland Park's double bill of Italian operas: Il segreto di Susanna and Pagliacci. If you come to the in-conversation you don’t have to stay for the opera - but if you might like to there’s a ticket discount below. Rachel and I are both sticking around for the show.
Opera Holland Park’s double bill of Italian operas: Il segreto di Susanna - Ermanno Wolf-Ferrari and Pagliacci - Ruggero Leoncavallo
“Two stories of jealousy from two masters of comedy and tragedy in a sensational double bill.”
The first half of this double bill is a gorgeous comedy. I can vouch for just what a treat it is having seen it in 2019 when it rightly won rave reviews. This is the same cast. So good - such fun.
Things will get a smidge darker in the second half. Pagliacci is going to be intense and brilliant. With world-class singer David Butt Philip who not for nothing is being called the leading tenor of his generation.
(I know so much about this because my husband is Opera Holland Park’s artistic director - not unconnected to us having the venue for this or the ticket offer…)
Ticket offer: if you are coming to the in-conversation and would like to stay for the opera then book here and use the code DB40 to get tickets for £40 each.
(The promo code DB40 will reduce price bands B-D to £40 - the red, green and yellow dots on the booking plan. Either put in the promo code box at the bottom of the seating plan, or in the basket. Any problems call the OHP box office / 0300 999 1000.)
Sadly I cannot make that evening, as I don't finish work in time and I am at the opposite end of London, but do give Rachel a hug from me - she is one of my favourites! Italy is close to my heart, for reasons that I should probably write about...