cornmeal cookies

All over northern Italy we have plenty of corn consequently, besides polenta, in Piedmont we also make traditional cookies with cornmeal, or in Italian, paste di meliga :P

delish tea flavored cornmeal cookies made by Tastinglife

can't get Torino out of Silvia

This guest post is by our friend Silvia Baldini, chef and owner of Strawberry and Sage. After her classical studies in Italy, a degree in architecture and graduating from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Silvia worked in advertising for 17 years. Secretly, however, she always dreamed of becoming a chef. So, she went back to school and graduated from the Cornell and French Culinary Institute in NYC with a degree in restaurant management.

She then moved to London with her husband Michele where she continued her culinary education with a Cuisine Diploma from Cordon Bleu. This is where, in the depths of a kitchen restaurant, she learned a lot and she got to fulfill one of her biggest dreams - yell “SERVICE!” in a restaurant, really, really loudly. After working at some prestigious European Michelin star restaurants, she started an event company called Strawberry and Sage: a creative food group, an outlet for her real passion: food. She now lives on the East Coast and she works on making Strawberry and Sage a dream become reality.

Silvia works with private clients, celebrities, fashion and food photographers and cook book authors. 
 She has appeared on national TV (in the US) and on cooking shows on the Food Network.  She is the Jamie Oliver’s food revolution ambassador in New Canaan Ct, she is the food contributor for the Hamlet Hub New Canaan, She has developed a series of lectures and culinary demonstrations with Analiese Paik of the Fairfield Green Food Guide to promote and teach about local and sustainable products, and she is currently writing her first cook book, Her work has been mentioned and frequently published in Saveur, the Jamie Oliver food revolution blog, CTBites, Cottages and Gardens, Serendipity, and international magazines.