Gigliocooking
Culinary School in Florence
Gigliocooking School was born in 2009 with the will to create a place where to “take out” the student’s talent in the kitchen. The motto of the school is “Cooking is not competition”: Cooking is taught and learned as what it really is: everything else.
The name has a nostalgic and, at the same time, hopeful significance: it is related to Marcella’s born place, Giglio Island. It is the name of the roots and, at the same time of the “Possible Future”: the belief that authentic and local foods are a relief for both ours and Earth’s health.
Chemistry, nutrition, culture, history, health, sharing, beauty, necessity: GiglioCooking is the school where to talk together about all the different shades of food and cuisine, where to learn techniques, combination of ingredients, to learn about the nutritional value, the plating and the visual combination of colors, about the way we detect the flavors, and where, at the same time, to be adventurous with your creativity.
Marcella Ansaldo
Chef and Founder of Gigliocooking
She was risen surrounded by natural foods and instinctive cookers. She has always found herself inside food.
After working in the family restaurant since a child, she started her own restaurant in 1985 on the Island. The restaurant has been running for 12 years and got mentions on the main restaurant guides in Italy.
For the following three years she worked with food, also as chef in top restaurants and meanwhile, she took her second Diploma of Food Technician.
In 2000 she moved to Florence to start a job as Chef Teacher in a university institute for foreign students, along 9 years.
Gigliocooking was started in 2009.
The school was born with the will to create a place where Cooking is not competition, but it is taught as what it really is, everything else: chemistry, nutrition, culture, history, health, sharing, beauty, necessity.
Her philosophy of cooking is: Learn the rules and then break them. That is: study the basics, experiment with new recipes. This is also the “recipe” of life: learn from the elderly, create your own style.
Marcella teaches and directs the school with passion, energy and smile, offering cooking lessons in two languages and involving cooking lovers of all ages.
“I am a cook, before being a “chef”: someone who likes to elaborate the food in order to feed the body and the soul. After being a cook, I am also a chef, in the sense that I am able to plan, organize, be on time.
Finally, I am a teacher, being this, the profession I have been doing the last twentytwo years: students say I am good to transmit both the passion and techniques I have gathered by experience and studies. Gigliocooking is the place that represents my concept of food and cooking as a daily natural action and not like a stressful competition.”
Most relevant events and awards:
2005: cooking lessons for the Slow Food in Charlotte, North Carolina. Article on the Charlotte Magazine.
2005-2006-2007: personal chef in Maine for famous entrepreneurs.
2011:Gigliocooking is on Tripavisor among the best activities to do in Florence.
2014: Lessons and lectures in the Lecture Hall of Vancouver Island University.
2015: First Certificate of Excellence from Tripadvisor.
2019: Gigliocooking 10th anniversary and publication of Marcella’s cookbook “Italian Cuisine through time and space”.
2021: Marcella created a menu for a gastronomic event in Lyon, France, on the occasion of the 700th anniversary of Dante’s death.
2021: Gigliocooking has been awarded by the Chamber of Commerce of Florence in the female entrepreneurship category.
2023: Marcella took part in the first episode of the new cooking show “Ciao House” on Foodnetwork to teach fresh pasta to other chefs.
COLLABORATORS
Gigliocooking benefits of expert collaborators, who are professionals in bakery, chocolate, pastry and cooking techniques.
They are an integral and authentic part of the support of the school: Alberto, Antonella, Cinzia, Giovanni; Ilaria, Isabella, Marco – listed in alphabetical order – with Marcella they constitute the knowledge, the philosophy, the spreading of knowledge of the school.
The Chefs will welcome you and will be able to guide you through this journey, whether it is a one-day experience or an entire course. Each of them will put you at ease: you will leave the school feeling a little richer.
The team is completed with Meena, our precious assistant in the kitchen, and Marta, administrator of all school activities.
THE SCHOOL
The school is located in the city of Florence, at about 10 minutes walk from the Porta alla Croce, one of the doors to enter the historical centre. It is very near the gardens of the riverside Lungarno del Tempio, a “food” area well visited in the summer nights. Walking along the river from the city center is the best way to get here.
You enter the school through a small courtyard. The work space is a very well lighted large room equipped with professional instruments: stainless steel counters, a large marble table to make pasta and pastries, professional ovens, fast dish washer, ice cream machine and many other machines. Although enclosed among walls, the room is “elastic”: it is set before each one lesson with the proper utensils for the procedure of the recipes and also with “stations” for the number of students/participants.
WE ARE GREEN!
Information Request
CONTACT US
Gigliocooking
Via del Ghirlandaio 6b
50121 Firenze FI, Italy
Tel: (+39) 055 6147210
Email: info@gigliocooking.com
P.IVA: 05895400488
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