Before Lorenza de’ Medici began her influential journey in the culinary world with the publication of her cookbooks in the late 1980s, the perception of Italian cuisine beyond Italy was largely limited. It was often relegated to a bland assortment of red sauce, white sauce, pizza, and pasta—dishes that could be hastily prepared using frozen and processed ingredients. However, with her groundbreaking works such as “Italy the Beautiful Cookbook” (1988) and “The Renaissance of Italian Cooking” (1989), along with her acclaimed 13-part PBS series “The de’ Medici Kitchen,” Ms. de’ Medici transformed the international understanding of Italian cooking.
Through her books and television show, she revealed that Italian cuisine could be a celebration of vibrant, fresh ingredients, emphasizing light salads, complex soups, and elegant preparations. Ms. de’ Medici passionately advocated for sourcing produce that was freshly harvested, ideally on the same day it would be used, often from local farmers.
For those willing to invest in their culinary education, she offered exclusive cooking courses at her family’s picturesque winery, Badia a Coltibuono, located just outside Florence. These intimate experiences ranged from one-day workshops to weeklong immersions, allowing students to stay in the estate’s historic millennia-old complex, originally an abbey. Between lessons, attendees learned essential skills such as selecting the finest vegetables, mastering the art of properly stuffing potatoes, and even the delicate technique of separating eggs by hand.
In a memorable exchange, Ms. de’ Medici recounted how one of her cooking students inquired about using frozen artichokes for a particular recipe. Her response was candid and clear: “If that’s all you have, then don’t do that dish,” she advised, emphasizing the importance of fresh, seasonal ingredients. “It does make a difference. In Italy, we don’t prepare out-of-season dishes.”
A direct descendant of the illustrious Medici family that once ruled Florence during the Renaissance, Lorenza de’ Medici left behind more than just a collection of recipes. She gifted the world a renewed appreciation for the art of Italian cooking, forever changing how it is perceived and prepared.
