I met Silvia Baracchi last year over dinner and an impromptu cooking lesson. Despite her one Michelin star, she is the epitome of Tuscan hospitality — warm, welcoming and humble. Several cookbooks under her belt, three Tuscan restaurants (all different in nature but still retaining their core of authenticity), a Relais & Chateaux hotel (Il Falconiere), award-winning wines and she still manages to look a million dollars, whether you meet her at 8 o’clock in the morning or 8 o’clock in the evening! 

She gave me a copy of her book The Red Tastes of Love, which I find intriguing. “I knew that I didn’t want to write one of those boring cookbooks that just sit on the shelf gathering dust, that absorb the aromas of the kitchen without ever inspiring any cooking,” she says. 

The book focuses on ingredients that are red and centre around love as a theme — so there are dishes for ‘spicy glances’, ‘the anniversary dinner’, ‘the conquest’, ‘temptation’, and so on.... It is full of fun and frolic and one of the few books that reads well even in translation. But more than anything, it is a vehicle for her extraordinary talent.

The simplest dish can trigger an emotion

“Food is sensuality, well-being, sharing. When you think about it, so many difficult situations get discussed around the table — political issues get resolved, kingdoms are born, love stories flourish, plots develop and passion blossoms. Even the simplest dish can trigger an emotion or spark desire; a special meal can encourage someone to forgive or fall in love or act more freely than usual.”
 

Silvia manages to include in her repertoire traditional recipes like pici pasta as well as creative ones like tartare of Chianina beef. They all work and live in harmony, as do her restaurants — the one at Il Falconiere, overlooking the Tuscan countryside, the trendy Bottega Baracchi in Cortona, and the ode to Tuscan simplicity, Locanda del Molino, which used to be her family home. Her commitment to local produce is synonymous with the great quality they produce in all the three restaurants — fabulous olive oil from their estate, fruit and herbs from their old orchards and the best beef in Italy from the Chianina cattle in the valley below from which the famous Fiorentina T-bone steak is made. Then there are truffle hunters and products from truffle made just a few kilometres away, artisanal cheeses and so on.
 

“To me the Falconiere represents a life of love and passion: First for Riccardo, my husband, who grew up there and then for my cooking, which takes its clues from traditional Tuscan recipes that I then develop into innovative cuisine.... The Falconiere is an authentic Tuscan villa. Its classical Italian garden is gracious in its symmetry and layout with elegant paths and scenic vistas; the small sacred church is still used; the airy limonaia is refreshing with its lemon trees. It is truly a magical place.”

Il Falconiere is addictive, I returned in May when the trees were bursting with cherries and the air, warm with the scent of lavender — a real ‘under the Tuscan sun’ experience. Their sparkling rose bubbly went down very well at lunch and we indulged in a bottle of their fine super Tuscan Ardito for dinner with a platter of local charcuterie at Bottega in the evening. In September, I returned again with a group of ladies as part of a culinary tour I had curated. Still warm and moving gently into autumn, Il Falconiere, like its hostess Silvia Baracchi, charms in all seasons. 

Here are four of Silvia’s recipes that we cooked together during her amazing cookery workshop