Joan Christy Lecture Series on Food and Culture: Food demonstration by Chef Jacopo Tendi

Salati Bene – Well Seasoned

The Nutrition Program is pleased to welcome Chef Jacopo Tendi as the feature speaker for the annual Joan Christy lecture series on Food and Culture.

Please join us for a food demonstration and conversation with Chef Tendi from Florence, Italy.

Chef Jacopo Tendi

Cooking great food is a family tradition for Jacopo Tendi, who started cooking as a young boy helping his mother prepare meals for his brothers and father. Tendi’s grandparents owned a trattoria in the Mugello territory of northern Tuscany, Italy, with his grandfather hunting for food and growing vegetables and his grandmother cooking them for the customers.

Tendi went to school to become a chef and in 2000, Salvatore Ferragamo asked him to hold a week of cooking classes for Ferragamo’s guests at his estate, Tenuta Il Borro. From that moment, Tendi decided to focus his interest on teaching Tuscan cookery, and he obtained his teaching degree at culinary school in Florence.

Jacopo and his wife, Anna, founded a non-profit organization, Salati Bene, which promotes educational programs regarding nutrition and sustainability for Italian and American students. For more than 20 years, Tendi has held weekly classes for Syracuse University Abroad students in Florence that feature cooking and field trips to organic and biodynamic farms in the area.

The daily teaching experience supports Tendi’s belief that good cooking can be an easy and joyful experience for everyone. His hands-on classes convey, in a familiar and unpretentious atmosphere, the down-to-earth character of Italian cooking and the strong, vibrant, and naturally genuine flavors of Tuscan food.