food Affairs
The Birth and On-going History of Amore Sapore
“Affairs” have always been a central part of the history of AMORE SAPORE and of its home base, the ALTABELLA VILLAS Estate. By affairs, we mean affairs of real estate, restoration, horticulture, the Italian culinary arts—but most of all, affairs of the heart, which are, of course, where the “Amore” meets the “Sapore”.
The Story’s origins may have begun when Mark and Elizabeth, long-time lovers of and travelers to Italy, thought about purchasing an apartment in Florence with friends, one of whom was Katharine.
What with one thing and another, the affair with the apartment in Florence fell apart, and before too long, the Katharine (fleeing a bad boyfriend) found herself climbing up the crumbling staircase of a once magnificent, but now roofless stone house, on a high hill exactly on the border between Umbria and Tuscany.
“The house was called Pancesi, probably named for the family of tenant farmers who built it or parts of it in successive centuries. Though the word means nothing in Italian, it invokes “pancia”-- the word for stomach, which I took to be a good omen—food, sustenance, navels, an omphalos.”[1] (Ibid. “Stone Grammarian”)
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[1] “An omphalos is a powerful symbolic artifact made from stone. Considered the ‘navel of the world’, the central point from which terrestrial life originated, an omphalos was an object of Hellenic religious symbolism believed to allow direct communication with the gods”. From Ancient Origins, Reconstructing the Story of Humanity’s Past”
Hoping against hope that this new affair would not turn out badly, Katharine returned to California to gather a group of friends, including Elizabeth and Mark, to buy the stone building and its gorgeous landscape, which they did a few months later.
The real estate affair now complete, the essential affair of reclaiming the house must begin. So, Katharine left her affairs in California dangling and moved to Italy to put together a crew of local well-drillers, stone masons, plumbers and electricians to begin the restoration of the house. Fortunately, near the end of that period, Elizabeth and Mark decided to tie up their business affairs in California and move to Italy to follow art and adventure.
Seeing Pancesi for the first time, they, too, fell in love and soon moved to Umbria’s green heart to help Katharine with the arduous recovery affair in which she, then all of them, were to be immersed for decades to come.
Among the striking achievements of the early founders was Elizabeth’s odyssey through the pleasures and complexities of the artisan food affairs of our crossroads area of central Italy. Her loving explorations and gift for place and people resulted in a miraculous book called, “Sustenance: The Food Traditions of Italy’s Heartland.” In its celebration of the love that goes into the making and sharing of taste, this work has become the guidebook for decades of visitors to the Altabella Villas properties and to the ethic that underpinned their founding.
Soon after Mark and Elizabeth mingled their fates with the Pancesi venture, another partner recruit appeared on the scene. She, Jan Lemma Kalberer, child of two Italian restauranteur parents, and long-term Italy devotee, fleeing certain entanglements in Portland, Oregon, thought the Pancesi affair might be just the impetus she needed to rearrange her cells.
Early on, in a circle dance class in Umbertide, Jan met two important, soon-to-be protagonists in the Pancesi drama: Paola, a young woman from Sansepolcro, Tuscany, and Melchiorre, a one-time shepherd and gifted cook from Sardinia. As they whirled and stamped, certain connections were forged, inciting visions of new kinds of affairs, both celebratory and vocational.
Paola Cesari
Primary, of course, was the party affair. On the ragged lawns of the newly rebuilt noble house, Jan convened the first of many Pancesi based revelries, assembling a full complement of acolytes and lovers. These included the aforementioned founders, along with an assorted crew of Jan’s, Elizabeth and Mark’s, and Katharine’s newfound friends and co-conspirators.
A day before the grand event, Melchiorre came to case the party grounds. Spying the old Pancesi bread-oven, built into the exterior front wall of the structure, the wily expert of traditional rituals, carefully swept it out with sprigs of rosemary, then built a slow-burn fire inside the conical beehive stove to warm the ancient stone and brick, left so cold over preceding decades. Lovingly, for 24 hours, he prepared his culinary stage, stoking and restoking a low fire ‘til the rock womb reached the perfect temperature.
Arriving at dawn on the day of the feast, Melchiorre and Jan brought the herb and olive oil- brined suckling pig, threaded a metal spit through its mouth and backside, then turned it slowly, slowly over the coals for twelve hours, in search of golden-brown skin and herbal, oozing meat of maiale. Caught in the waiting pan beneath, the lush juices dripped on kneaded flour of flat bread.
Gathering rocks in a circle, Melchiorre built an outdoor fire--high flames in the back of the cook circle, coals drawn forward under a metal grill. Around this circle of heat, a swelling group of celebrants began to gather.
As the cooks were pulling the pig from its stone kiln to recompose its juices, Paola arrived with Stefano, Roman escapee to the green hills of Umbria, World Wild-Life Director for the Region, mushroom hunter extraordinaire. Along with Melchiorre, he headed into the woods surrounding Pancesi in search of porcini, wild asparagus, wild fennel, rosemary, and thyme—soon emerging with overflowing baskets of sylvan bounty.
With priestly solemnity, Stefano placed the porcini on the grill, signaling the completion of preliminary rites and the official beginning of the Saturnalian Affair. Wine was poured, glasses held high, pig on platter, the congregants circle danced around the fire, toasting Pancesi’s rebirth--the ancient stones once more composed for habitation, rising again like the phoenix on its high Umbrian hillside.
And, thus, from ancient skill, from gratefulness to beneficent nature, from courting couples was ALTABELLA and the ALTABELLA Cooking Business born, with Jan and Melchiorre as the founding principals.
When, upon the birth of her first grandchild, Jan moved back to the US, Paola took over the cooking business and continue to run it today. Having meals prepared at home by our chefs and the related cooking classes are among the highlights of a visit to the ALTABELLA Villas.
Thus did Altabella’s origin feasts become radiating events to be shared many times over with other groups and lovers who would assemble at La Pietra and, in time, also at La Quercia and Casa Carina to connect with the land, its alluring tastes, the great stone houses, and each other.
From this magical stew, arose the name: AMORE SAPORE—an assembly of sibilant syllables that, in sound and sense, are meant to express the many affairs of the heart that have shaped our ventures.
