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News, stories, and recipes for anyone who loves Italian food, wine, spirits, and travel

Appetito

A lifelong learner and mentor of Italian cuisine, Cathy Whims is happiest when she’s sharing her love and knowledge of regional Italian culture through food, wine, travel, and writing. 
Her deep dive into the soul and psyche of Italian cooking started over 30 years ago at Genoa,  one of the first high-end, chef-driven, seasonally focused restaurants in Portland, Oregon. During her 18-year tenure, 10 of those years as chef/co-owner, Whims introduced Portland diners to both the nuances of Italian ingredients and the concept of sourcing locally.
Today, she continues to share her passion through her three Portland restaurants (Nostrana, Oven and Shaker, and Enoteca Nostrana), the culinary tours she leads in Italy and the cooking classes she hosts around the world. Her writing and recipes have been featured in numerous outlets including The Wall Street Journal and Eating Well and soon in the pages of her first cookbook, scheduled to debut in 2025.
Whims’ culinary philosophy is grounded in the way Italians weave food into the seasons, holidays, love, friendships and daily life. Similarly, Cathy has created personal relationships with numerous farmers and ranchers in the Pacific Northwest, as well as winemakers in Italy and at home, crafting a community that celebrates the good things in life that come when you sit with friends at a table. Her ability to follow the seasons, creating brilliant food that comes from the heart has earned her six James Beard Award nominations for Best Chef Northwest and is the guiding vision behind all of her restaurants. 
Cathy’s community building includes serving on the board of Scuola Italiana di Portland, a non-profit school for all ages that promotes Italian language and culture, as well as ongoing collaborations with The Culinary Breeding Network, an Oregon State University initiative that aims to bridge the gap between ‘breeders and eaters’ by improving agricultural and culinary quality in vegetables and grains. And for many years she served on the board of Slow Food Portland–the first chapter in the United States of Slow Food, the non-profit, member-supported organization founded in Italy in 1989 to counteract the culture of fast food. 
Cathy is the owner of  three Portland, Oregon restaurants: 
<ul>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://nostrana.com/">Nostrana</a> (2006), her beloved flagship restaurant since 2006 that serves inventive regional Italian through the lens of seasonal Pacific Northwest ingredients. Heralded  as one of the best Italian restaurants in the United States by Thrillist and Tasting Table, Best Pizza in Portland by Eater and Restaurant of the Year by The Oregonian in 2006, the year it opened.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://www.ovenandshaker.com/">Oven and Shaker</a> (2012), an urban pizza and cocktail spot in Portland’s Pearl District, with a second location in Lake Oswego. Named one of the best places for pizza in Portland by Portland Monthly in 2022.</li>
<li style="font-weight: 400"><a href="https://enotecanostrana.com/">Enoteca Nostrana </a>(2018), a gorgeous, modern wine bar and special events space with an award-winning wine list focused on small producers and creative bar programs. The 2018 Eater Portland Award winner for Design of the Year and a 2018 Portland Monthly Best New Restaurant.</li>
</ul>
Follow Cathy on Instagram <a href="https://www.instagram.com/cathywhims/?hl=en">@cathywhims</a>.
Photo: John Valls

Cathy Whims

Fresh gnocchi being cut on a floured work surface. Image 4

Travel

Appetito Travels: An Expert’s Guide to Bologna, Italy

Julia DeBari is a travel writer with an essayist&#8217;s instincts, drawn to the kind of cultural immersion that only comes from slowing down. After 25 years as a UX professional, she brings a researcher&#8217;s curiosity to unfamiliar places, paying close attention to how people actually live, eat, and gather. Her essays sit at the intersection of observation and reflection, shaped by traditional accommodations, local food, and the histories embedded in a place. It&#8217;s less about checking off destinations and more about noticing what a place reveals about being human.

Julia DeBari

Pasta Frittata at home. Photo Credit: Julia DeBari

The Only Dish I Know How to Cook: Pasta Frittata

Sheila Donohue founded Vero in 2018 as a second career after 30 years in Fintech. Italy has been a home for 
her since 2001, which is where she became a sommelier and got to know many small wine and food artisan 
farmers whose products were not available in the US market. Vero imports and sells small batch, artisanal 
wines, olive oils and specialty foods from around the world to businesses and consumers across the USA. 
Check out Vero at <a href="https://verovino.com/">verovino.com.</a>
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Sheila Donohue

Chef Riccardo Severi making fresh passatelli by hand in his kitchen. Photo credit Marco Valgiusti

Features

An Intimate Culinary Discovery of Romagna at Sovescio

A professional chef and Italian cooking instructor for over 20 years, Deborah Dal Fovo has a passion for Italy. As a young woman in search of a more meaningful life, she left her home in the U.S. and moved to Northern Italy to rediscover family roots in the Dolomites. After living in Milan and Tuscany for 20 years and cultivating a wealth of culinary knowledge and skills, Deborah now divides her life between Italy and California, where she shares her mastery of Italian cuisine and lifestyle.
Chef Deborah has cooked for royalty, rock stars, tech moguls, and political leaders, and plenty of regular folk celebrating a love of the good life. She teaches Italian cooking online and in person at schools and venues around the world, including the Culinary Institute of America in Napa, Eataly Silicon Valley, and Italian Cultural Institutes.
Dubbed the Italian Martha Stewart by her clients, Deborah shares the beautiful Italian lifestyle ‘la bella vita’ through her brand of cooking and entertaining. You can find Deborah in the kitchen cooking up Italian feasts, teaching in person and online cooking classes, creating recipes and cooking videos for students and followers, and hosting week-long food and wine tours in the Dolomites for travelers wanting to get an insider taste of Italy. Deborah is sharing the passion for food and cooking that defines the Italian way of life!
For more on Deborah, please visit her site <a title="http://www.deborahdalfovo.com/" href="http://www.deborahdalfovo.com/">www.deborahdalfovo.com</a> and her La Bella Vita blog: <a title="http://www.theartofitalianliving.com/" href="http://www.theartofitalianliving.com/">www.theartofitalianliving.com</a>.

Deborah Dal Fovo

Chef / Cooking Instructor Deborah Dal Favo at a Parmigiano Reggiano facility in Emilia-Romagna.

Bologna

Appetito Travels: An Expert’s Guide to Bologna, Italy

The Only Dish I Know How to Cook: Pasta Frittata

An Intimate Culinary Discovery of Romagna at Sovescio

Join Deborah Dal Fovo in the Food Mecca of Emilia-Romagna