After scouring the shelves of the Academia Barilla Gastronomic Library in search of information about famous historical figures with a love for Italian food and culture, we have put together a list of stories and recipes guaranteed to whet your appetite.

From Cato the Censor, a Roman statesman and gifted orator, to the lovable Italian comedic actor Totò, our findings span over two millennia of history.

Did you know that Giuseppe Verdi often gave a cooked pork shoulder, or spalla cotta, to his friends as a gift? Or that Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II had a soft spot for candied violets?

Take, for example, the case of Napoleon Bonaparte. As it turns out, this fierce French emperor, ate exactly the same thing, chicken Marengo, after every military victory. This dish was served to him on the battlefield after he defeated the Austrians at Marengo in 1800. Napoleon’s chef assembled the dish using ingredients he took from nearby families and farmers, including chicken, eggs, shrimp and tomatoes. Napoleon liked the dish so much that he demanded that his chef prepare chicken Marengo after every winning battle for then on out.

Are you familiar with the life and career of Enrico Caruso? Caruso – possibly the greatest tenor of all times – born in Naples, but traveled the world performing in all the top opera houses. However, when Caruso returned to Naples to perform at the legendary San Carlo theater, he received harsh criticism for his performance from his fellow Neapolitans.

With a scared ego, Caruso vowed never to return to Naples, except for a plate of bucatini with tomato sauce! For instructions on how to prepare Caruso-style pasta, visit the Academia Barilla website.

To discover more fascinating stories, and recipes, from famous people throughout history, join us “At the table with…”

As our readership probably remember, last year we dedicated several blog posts to the Opera Verdi Festival 2007, blogging about the Maestro as well as about the Opera Festival and the gourmet opera tours organized by Academia Barilla to allow the Italian food and opera lovers to enjoy the event at its best.

This year the Opera Verdi Festival 2008 presented an even more structured program, with plenty of opera shows at several historic theaters and locations; a full digital booklet with program and info in English is downloadable at this link from the Teatro Regio website.

Academia Barilla offered luxury gourmet and opera travel packages to enjoy the experience of discovering Verdi’s opera, the city of Parma and the Italian Food Valley in full style.

In addition to the gourmet cultural tours organized in conjunction with the Festival Verdi, Academia Barilla provides more gourmet and cultural tours to Parma and Italy’s Food Valley, that we love to call Italian Culinary Learning Vacations, as they allow tour guests to learn a lot about Italian culinary culture while enjoying a luxury vacation.

For more info, details and booking for Academia Barilla’s cultural, culinary and gastronomic tours, please get in touch with Academia Barilla in Parma at +39 0521 264060 (toll-free number from Italy 800 376-116), or in the United States at the US toll-free number 1-866-772-2233.

Today we want to talk about MSC Orchestra, the luxury Italian cruise ship recently aquired by MSC Cruises, who added the Italian cruise ship to their fleet of luxury cruise ships.

Academia Barilla just sealed a partnership with MSC Orchestra, and all their customers and guests now get a special discount at the Academia Barilla online store. MSC Cruises even set up an Academia Barilla partner page on their website, and other pages where users get direct access to Academia Barilla’s recipes, culinary courses info and both the Academia Barilla product line and the new Giada De Laurentiis Selected by Academia Barilla Italian gourmet food products. All products are of course available at the Academia Barilla online store.

MSC Orchestra is a ship designed to create an atmosphere of luxury cruising, boasting 18 decks, a spacious Body and Mind Spa, and both meditation area and fitness center overlooking the bow of the ship. There are 5 restaurants onboard the MSC Orchestra, offering a gourmet food experience that ranges from authentic Italian cuisine to sophisticated Shanghai dishes. 

The state-of-the art Italian luxury cruise ship also offers Internet Café, tennis and basketball courts, and two stunning pools (Acapulco and Cala Blanca). MSC Orchestra’s guests are accomodated in luxurious cabins, most featuring private balconies.

Check out the video on the website dedicated to MSC Orchestra, The Orchestra is coming to town, or just to browse the great pictures on the website (we grabbed a few of them for this blog post) to discover this truly amazing Italian cruise ship.

Also, check out the cruise packages and offers for this winter’s Inaugural Carribean and Bermuda Season - prices start at $449* (check MSC Cruises’ website for pricing and booking details), and kids 17 and under sail free! All of MSC Orchestra’s Winter 2008/2009 offers are at this link.

We will be blogging again about this sea jewel of Italian design, and will also try to track down MSC Orchestra’s Executive Chef to get a recipe or two, as soon as the cruise ship will come to town!

We also blogged several times about other Academia Barilla initiatives that put together Italian food and culture - and no, we don’t mean “just” Italian food culture, but actually gourmet food plus Italian culture, such as in the gourmet cultural tours proposed by Academia Barilla to discover historic and artistic landmarks, contemporary art or classic opera.

Talking about which, we can anticipate that also for this year Academia Barilla will offer gourmet luxury packages to enjoy the Festival Verdi 2008, dedicated to the Italian Opera Maestro Giuseppe Verdi. We’ll blog about it soon, stay tuned!

We are not the only one blogging about the Academia Barilla gourmet, cultural and culinary tours to Italy. The Academia Barilla Culinary Center in Parma, Italy, is listed as a top culinary destination by several Italian food websites and directories, such as ChicagoTribune.com, Cooking In Italy, Alta Cucina and GreatEveryDayWines.com, among others. Not to mention of course Gourmet Magazine, who recently ranked the Academia Barilla Culinary Center among the world’s best cooking schools, among the top 5 in the world in the Luxury category. 

If you want to get more info and details about the cultural, culinary and gastronomic tours of Academia Barilla please get in touch with Academia Barilla in Parma at +39 0521 264060 (toll-free number from Italy 800 376-116), or in the United States at the US toll-free number 1-866-772-2233.

We also already talked about our VIP tours, too, as in the recent case of Lynn Novo’s VIP gourmet tour to Parma, organized by Chef and food entrepreneur Lynn Novo from Atlanta, Georgia.

The Academia Barilla VIP tours are luxury guided cultural and culinary tours designed by Academia Barilla and managed by Academia Barilla Culinary School Alumni such as Lynn Novo or Frank DiMaria, who is organizing a new VIP tour from Chicago, Illinois.

Over the next few weeks we will publish a series of blog posts that will help recreate the experience, albeit in a virtual way, proposed by the Academia Barilla VIP tour organized and guided by Frank DiMaria. For the moment, we anticipate that there will be a lot of cooking, but also visits to local artisan food producers, Medieval castles, the Ferrari Museum, and guided tours to the historic and monument beauties of the cities of Parma and Bologna.

Stay tuned for the next blog posts. If you want to book or get more info on this specific Academia Barilla VIP tour, please call Frank DiMaria at all +1 847-965-0672 or email frankdimaria@comcast.net to reserve your space!

Today Cathy Mantuano will teach us how to make the perfect Bellini cocktail - not only, she also give us a great tip on how to make little changes to the original recipe to prepare also Rossini and Tiziano cocktails!

We know you are going to love all of them, so go ahead and enjoy the three cocktails, just please remember to drink responsibly. Wine expert Cathy Mantuano suggest to serve these cocktails at brunch, or at cocktail hours.

BELLINI COCKTAIL
A cocktail recipe by wine expert Cathy Mantuano
(makes 1 cocktail)

WINE EXPERT NOTES AND TIPS

This sparkling wine drink, invented at the famous Harry’s Bar in Venice, is made there with white peach juice, though yellow peach juice would also be delicious.

INGREDIENTS

- 2 ounces chilled peach juice or peach nectar
- 4 ounces chilled Prosecco or other dry sparkling wine

PREPARATION

In a champagne flute, combine the juice and the wine.

ROSSINI COCKTAIL

To make this fruity sparkling wine drink, substitute strawberry juice for the peach juice.

TIZIANO COCKTAIL

Perfect for fall, this refreshing cocktail substitutes Concord grape juice for the peach juice.

Thanks Cathy, and cheers to all Italian Food Lovers!

Remember that today, July 2, wine expert Cathy Mantuano and her husband and cookbook co-writer Chef Tony Mantuano have a book signing and demo beginning at 2 p.m. as part of the Taste of Chicago event. They will be located outside the Zagat pavilion signing copies and showcasing recipes from Wine Bar Food, their latest cookbook. Can’t miss this!

Just a final note from the Italian Food Lovers blog team, as you know we live and breath food culture but we also love Italian culture overall. Did you know that the cocktails are named after three major Italian artists?

When the famous Harry’s Bar in Piazza San Marco, Venice (Venezia, not LA), created the Bellini cocktail, it was dedicated to Venetian Renaissance painter and Maestro Giovanni Bellini, while the Tiziano cocktail is named after another Venetian Reinassance painter, Tiziano Vecelli (Titian).

The Rossini cocktail honors a more recent artist, the Italian opera composer and Maestro Gioacchino Rossini, the author of famous operas such as The Barber of Seville (Il Barbiere di Sivilla), William Tell (Guillaume Tell) and Tancredi. Maestro Rossini was born in Pesaro and not in Venice, but has performed a lot in Venice, granting him the honor of a virtual Venice honorary citizenship and… naming a great cocktail!

These final images are taken from Wikipedia and so are the links, that we invite you to explore to get to know more about the three Italian Maestros. Maybe while sipping their drinks!