Rent a Tuscan villa / restaurant, cook your own dinner
I’ve been meaning to go check out this place in the Florentine hills called Dulcamara where you can cook your own meal OR hire a caterer. It’s the same place that Chef Paula Carrier has been using for her British Empire lunches. This guest article submitted by Suzi Jenkins has me convinced that I must do a dinner there soon. But who would want to eat what I cook? And how do you cook for so many people?! Here’s what Suzi has to say.
Simply brilliant. Rent-a-restaurant. The whole kaboodle, lock, stock and barrel, A-Z! Of course the dining rooms and the garden, but the kitchen too, the cutlery, the glasses and plates, the kitchen equipment … and if you need them ever a washer-upper or two. Make a cheese sandwich or a seven course gourmet meal!
Dulcaramara is the name of the “restaurant-with-a-twist” located at Villa Il Mulino, situated on the hills just behind Careggi (literally a 10 minute drive from the hospital area). Uso di Cucina is the name of this devilishly brilliant project run by serial entrepreneur Tommaso Colombini.
It sounded almost too strange to be true, so we tried it out. Being a Brit, my culinary expertise is not so hot, but I have lots of lovely Italian (and other nationality friends) and so we booked an evening. First we put together our guest list (46 people total) and started battling out a menu that would suit all … ha ha ha impossible, so we just decided to cook loads!
We arranged a lovely long shopping list which we sent to Tommaso before the date (agreeing that he would give us the bill to pay, and obviously including copious amounts of wine), and arranged to have Dulcamara from 5pm onwards on a balmy September evening.
And so, we trundled up into the Tuscan hills at the appointed hour to embark on our culinary experiment. Absolute chaos ensued! The kitchen probably happily holds about 10 competent chefs, 20 incompetent chefs, and as big a rabble as you like. We weren’t exactly a disciplined entourage, so all 46 of us all tried to organise each other, with the predictable result that nothing and no-one was remotely coordinated with anything and anyone else. But we did have fun; enormous amounts and bucketloads of fun.
At roughly 8pm we sat down at rather haphazardly laid tables (that wasn’t very organised either…), and the banqueting began. Some really really good dishes, some on-the-spur-of-the-moment total successes, and at least two really awful disasters (the wise amongst us spotted them immediately so avoided ruining our palates)! After a great meal we danced away the excess calories for a couple of hours until about midnight.
Our evening (about 7 hours long in the end) cost us €13 per person for the rental of Dulcamara (plus one washer-upper), plus another €11 per person for food and drink. A really great value evening. Obviously the latter price changes if you decide to have a real chef in cooking for you. The price of the location changes according to season, day of the week, time etc.
It’s an inspirational formula for having a good time. Tommaso will give you as little or as much support as you require, and if you want to be guaranteed a splendid banquet will assist you with sourcing a great catering service to work the kitchen. So, Dulcamara is a marvellous venue for the usual catered events such as weddings, baptisms, birthdays etc, but also amazing for doing something different like cooking with friends (as we did), or even hiring a professional chef and preparing a meal for friends, family, or colleagues – and learning lots while you do it.
In Toscana there is a saying “a tavola non si’invecchia” (you don’t age at the table), and that’s better, and more enjoyable, than Botox injections anytime. So get cooking!
Contact: Tommaso Colombini
(who says “I do speak some English… and I know people who speak really good English”)
Phone: +39 338 607 8874
website in English: www.usodicucina.it
Sometimes Bilingual Blog: usodicucina.webonda.it
Email: info@usodicucina.it
