Not just any Duchess. Nicoletta is THE Duchess. Her full name is Duchess Nicoletta Polo Tomasi Lanza and she runs occasional private cooking lessons in her palace on the sea in Palermo, Sicily. The delightfully full day's lesson was organized by Linda Plazonja of Morso Soggiorno. We met the Duchess in the early morning, outside of the hectic Viccuria market, where we shopped for the ingredients.
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| Duchess, banging through her shopping list |
While shopping in the market, she was accompanied by our group (who mostly just helped carry the bags), plus her two young assistants. Then in her palace, her every need was serviced by her assistants plus her maid and butler. Dirty pots and utensils vanished as she finished with them.
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| Insalata Pantesca di Patate e Capperi (Potato Salad with Capers, Pantelleria Style) |
Although she was raised in Venice, Nicoletta made Palermo her home when she married her royal husband and moved into his family's Palazzo Lanza Tomasi. The palace was built beginning in the late 1600s and was used in the 1700s as the Imperial College for the Education of Young Aristocrats. A bit of irony there. The palace has been in her husband's family since 1850, and over the years, various pieces of it have been assembled by adding nearby properties. It is a grand and elegant place. After the cooking lesson in the kitchen, while the food was cooking, she took us on a walking tour through the public spaces in the palace, regaling us with its history.
We ate lunch in the dining room, with full service of china, silver and crystal. We were all grimy from cooking, but she tactfully overlooked it, including invited guests to join us at the table. They were properly dressed and coiffed for the elegant lunch we prepared - but which we dined on in our workout clothes and sneakers. Oh, and the Filipino waitstaff was crisply dressed in pressed whites.
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| Palace China with the Family Crest |
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| Elegant Service for an Elegant Lunch |
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| Me, looking ridiculous as I share a lovely lunch with a bank executive...conversing the whole time in French |
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| Menu Cards Printed and Placed for each Diner (Doesn't everyone do that?) |
