Recently we’ve had requests about catering at A Corte, which we’ve organised on guests behalf and delighted to say it has been wonderfully successful.
There are 2 options, the first being 2 lovely middle aged fun, smiley Italian ladies – Grazia, who is head of gastronomy in Bagni di Lucca and her friend Anna Rita. The price for dinner is €30/ head for adults, €25/bambioni – no drinks provided.
Sample menu:
They prepare and make the food at home, then boil the pasta etc at A Corte, serve it and clear it away. They usually arrive at our house with the food at 17.30 and put it all together in our kitchen.
Grazia’s sample Tuscan menu:
Antipasti – Tuscan cold meats, crostini, panzanella, pappa al pomodoro, fried dough balls
Pasta – I vegetable, 1meat
Secondi – 2 meat dishes with seasonal vegetables
Dessert – dessert or fruit
(I imagine if someone requested a particular dish, then providing it was seasonal & Tuscan then she would cook it)
The other alternative is 32 year old Aurelio Barattini www.aureliobarattini.com, who runs the fantastic Antica Locanda trattoria www.anticalocandadisesto.it/ with his delightful family. Aurelio is a fantastic chef and cooks in the Italian embassy in NY, London for many special galas and may soon be opening a Tuscan restaurant in Madison Avenue, NY. As regular clients to his restaurants, he has reduced his price from €100 to €85/ head. One of the unique points with Aurelio’s dinner is the wonderful quality of the produce – the wines, olive oil, fruits etc are produced on their farm, chocolates home made etc. He too, is a lovely passionate young chef and will be accompanied by a waitress.
Aurellio Barattini’s suggested dinner menus:
Each menu includes a welcome aperitif ( sparkling wine- Prosecco) white and red wine, cantuccini chocolates and vin santo.
Service and kitchen cleaning & uses the restaurants plates.
Menu 1 :
Aromatized beef carpaccio with rocket and parmesan cheese
Home made ravioli with meat sauce
Stewed chicken with potatoes
Apple tart
Menu 2 :
Mix of crostini and Prosciutto Bazzone
Tagliolini with mushroom and truffle sauce
Stewed Pork Spare Ribs with bitter olives and beans
Tiramisu with strawberries (summer style)
Reviews:
We can highly recommend the service of the ladies (Grazia and friend). They have cooked two wonderful diners for us. Schlatmann NL, July 2013
The lady’s cooked a lovely diner, there was so much food that we put everything in the fridge and we have eaten it again yesterday. Tomorrow they will come again. We look forward to it. – Del Poel, NL, Aug 2013
One of our overall highlights of the week was our meal prepared by Aurelio. What a delight. The food was outstanding: fresh, delicious, uncomplicated but very nuanced in flavor. He is very talented. I was a little concerned that the kids would be turned off by “fancy” food, but I was wrong. They ALL devoured everything (and believe me, my 10 yr old daughter eating stuffed zucchini flowers and asking for seconds is pretty noteworthy!) They all agreed it was the best food we had in Italy and they loved it. It was a very nice relaxing night for the family, and it hit at just the right time in the trip where we needed a relaxing transition. Thank you very much for recommending him! I thought his price was very reasonable considering he left us with enough food for the next night and it included all the wine. I wouldn’t hesitate to tell other guests about that as an option. K Viveros August 2013
Payment for each dinner is paid directly to the cooks on the night