Island Cooking – Sardinia
Letitia Clark in conversation with Bee Wilson and Vicky Bennison
Wednesday 13 November, 6.30pm at ICI London
On the occasion of the IX Edition of the Week of Italian Cuisine in the World – an annual initiative by the Ministero degli Affari Esteri e della Cooperazione Internazionale, developed to promote Italian culinary traditions and food and wine knowledge as a distinctive trait of Italian identity and culture – ICI London is pleased to host two events dedicated to Italian food and cooking, starting on 11 November with Giusi Battaglia in conversation with Giorgio Locatelli.
On Wednesday 13 November at 6.30pm the Sardinia-based chef, writer and illustrator Letitia Clark, author of Wild Figs and Fennel, Bitter Honey and La Vie e’ Dolce, in conversation with food writer and journalist Bee Wilson and Vicky Bennison, founder of Pasta Grannies.
Book your place HERE
Thanks to Right House, Cantine Nuraghe Anthigori, L’Assaggino Restaurant
LETITIA CLARK is a writer and a chef. Originally from Devon, Letitia trained at Leith’s School of Food & Wine following a degree and Masters in English Literature. After graduating she worked in London restaurants (inc. Spring, The Dock Kitchen, Morito, Moro, Ellory-now-Leroy), as well as cooking for events, weddings, markets stalls and pop ups. She has been featured in PPC, Code, The Evening Standard and Waitrose, The Guardian, Elle, Conde Nast Traveller, Olive, The Times, The Financial Times, The Telegraph, The Sunday Times, Sunday Brunch, The New York Times, Eater, etc. and has also written for The Food Almanac and Il Corriere della Sera. In 2017 she moved from London to Sardinia and began writing, drawing and cooking full-time, as well as teaching English. She currently splits her time between London and rural Sardinia, where she writes, paints and cooks. Her first book, Bitter Honey: Recipes and Stories from the Island of Sardinia, was published in April 2020. It was voted one of the best food books of 2020 by The Times, and one of the only cookbooks worth buying in lockdown by The New York Times. It was also Highly Commended by The Guild of Food Writers in the First Book category. Her second book, La Vita è Dolce, a celebration of sweet things inspired by Italy, was published in June 2021. It was voted one of the best food books of 2021 in The Sunday Times and won a Dutch Award for ‘the most beautiful cookbook of 2022’ – specifically regarding the photography. Wild Figs & Fennel is Letitia’s third book. It welcomes you to a year in Letitia Clark’s kitchen on the beautiful island of Sardinia. In it, Letitia delves into the jagged core of Sardinian cooking, inviting you to taste the flavours of each season. Sardinian food is a distilled version of Italian food; each recipe in Wild Figs and Fennel celebrates this, emphasising the importance of cooking seasonally and locally. Eating well is a way of life here. Letitia is currently working on a book about Lemons!
BEE WILSON is a cook, food writer and journalist. Her books include CONSIDER THE FORK, FIRST BITE and THE WAY WE EAT NOW. She also writes the ‘Table Talk’ column in The Wall Street Journal. Bee is interested in how food relates to every other aspect of human life, from history to psychology to technology. She has been writing about food for more than twenty years but has only recently written her first cookbook, THE SECRET OF COOKING: Recipes for an Easier Life in the Kitchen – which was awarded Best General Cookbook 2024 by the Guild of Food Writers. The book’s aim is to suggest ways to make cooking much easier, whether you are cooking alone or cooking for a crowd; and ways to make use of cheap, everyday objects you probably already have in your kitchen such as box graters.
VICKY BENNISON is the person behind the Pasta Grannies project. She finds and films women who still make pasta by hand – a tradition that is disappearing in Italy. Along the way, she also meet producers, people and delicious non pasta food, so she shares those too. Vicky spent many years working in international development in places like Siberia, South Africa, and Turkmenistan. The next decent meal was always on her mind, and she began writing about her culinary adventures: cooking zebra stew in near Lake Turkana in Kenya is just one example. She progressed onto writing books. ‘The Taste of a Place’ food guides told readers where to find good food and wine in Corfu, Mallorca and Andalucia. She was chuffed they were recommended by The Observer, The Times, and Delia Smith Online, amongst others. She co-wrote ‘Seasonal Spanish Food’ with London based, Spanish chef Jose Pizarro (shortlisted for 3 different awards). She and her husband, Billy, have a home in Le Marche, central Italy, and she divides her time between there and London.
The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World was launched in 2015 to promote fine Italian cuisine and our agri-food products. Thanks to the number and quality of events proposed around the world by the Ministry’s foreign network, it has been established over the years as an event of great importance.
Seminars and conferences, meetings with chefs and cookery courses, tastings and dinners accompany the sales promotion activities. The story of Italian cuisine is also told through its projection in art, with movies, concerts and photo exhibitions. The event also includes discussions on highly topical issues: the relationship between food and environmental sustainability, the culture of healthy food, food safety, the right to food, food education, territorial identity and biodiversity.
The project, conceived and coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs – Directorate General for Cultural and Economic Promotion and Innovation, was developed internally by a large working group involving other Italian ministries and the different entities that represent Italian cuisine and Italy in the world.
The initiative was created and developed according to the integrated promotion plan Vivere ALL’Italiana