Valentina is the noted UK and Italy based authority on Italian food and food culture. Descendant from the noble Renaissance family Sforza, Valentina is the youngest of a large Anglo Italian family. Her education began at the St. George’s English School in Rome. After qualifying with 2 diplomas for teaching and cooking at the Scuola di Alta Cucina Cordon Bleu School in 1976, Valentina moved to London and began to work as a private chef and in a variety of different restaurants and situations, establishing herself as an authentic Italian chef.
In 1984 Valentina published her first cookery book, Perfect Pasta, which was translated into 6 languages and won the award for literature and gastronomy in Germany.
Following the success of Perfect Pasta, 7other books followed, culminating in the BBC offering Valentina a 6 part television series. Italian Regional Cookery, transmitted in the UK during April/May 1990, and has been repeated several times since. The series has also been transmitted in the USA and Australasia. The book of the series became a top ten best seller. Valentina has gone on to write over 20 books on Italian cookery (see below), and has also contributed to several other books such as The Sunday Times Cook’s Companion and Insight Guide to Tuscany.
Valentina regularly features on television and radio and contributes to many leading national newspapers and magazines, and is now established as the most prolific writer on Italian food. Valentina is bright, passionate, and accessible and appeals to people far beyond her chosen subject. Always in demand to appear at top food events, Valentina has given innumerable live cookery demonstrations and lectures extensively across Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Africa.
Consultancy: Valentina’s consultancy and teaching skills have been extensively sought in a variety of applications by many top Supermarkets and various food manufacturers. Hotel and restaurant groups and food appliance companies also seek her skills, from marketing, promotions, product, recipe and menu development, through to lecturing, teaching and training.
Teaching:
As a fully qualified and extremely experienced teacher of cookery, Valentina holds residential cookery courses in Italy at various locations.
Through teaching, she shares her knowledge and profound love of Italian cuisine with her students on a house party basis, mixing it up with interventions from other guest celebrity chefs and making the most of the local produce. All classes are hands on, with plenty of opportunity to meet local experts, growers and vineyards and to visit markets and shops. These highly successful and well attended courses last between 2 and 7 days, but are often tailored to suit individual clients requirements. Valentina also teaches courses for many other schools throughout the UK and further afield and successfully established a series of Italian food and food culture hands on workshops at the prestigious Waterford Winery on the Cape in South Africa.
Catering:
Valentina is often asked to cater for special events, from weddings to cocktail parties. The largest event she has ever cooked for has been 2,500 guests at Alexandra Palace, and the smallest was a very special dinner for 2. Valentina often cooks dinner parties for charity events, auctioning off her skills as a one off cook to the highest bidder. She is available for hire as a private chef for dinner parties, luncheons, cocktail parties or larger events. Please contact Diana for further details and availability. Telephone: 0208 6512997
Currently:
Valentina divides her time between teaching; consultancy to hotels, restaurants, and retail outfits; writing; broadcasting and running her cookery holidays in Italy and U.K. based courses. She is currently writing a new series of 7 books on regional Italian food for Lorenz books and is also looking forward to the publication of new pasta book, Pasta Galore, in September 2009. Valentina is developing a series of Master classes with Italian Food and Australian wine in cooperation with her friend and colleague Brian Oakwell, and will be spending much of the summer in Suffolk where she will be running workshops, tastings and other culinary events at the Crown Inn in Framlingham.
VALENTINA’S BOOKS
Perfect Pasta
(Shuckburgh Reynolds, 1984) Pasta
(Century, 1984. St. Michael,
1985) (Arrow Books, 1991)
Regional Italian Cookery Edible Italy:A
(Walker Books/Sainsburys,1986 Traveller’s Guide
Walker Books, 1991). (Ebury Press 1988)
Southern Italian Cooking Recipes from an Italian (Fontana, 1988. Grafton, 1990) Farmhouse
(Conran Octopus, 1989)
Valentina’s Regional
Italian Cookery Valentina’s
(BBC, 1990) Italian Family Feasts
(Conran Octopus, 1990)
The Cooking of Tuscany Valentina’s
(Sainsburys, 1992) Complete Italian
Cookery Course
(BBC, 1992)
Instant Italian Southern Italian Cooking
(Conran Octopus, 1991) (Pavilion, Sept. 1993)
Simply Italian Valentina Harris
(BBC , June 1995) Cooks Italian
(BBC November 1996)
What Pasta? Which Sauce? Risotto! Risotto!
(Kyle Cathie, 1998) (Cassells, 1998)
Italia! Italia! Valentina’s 4 Season Cook Book
(Cassells, 1999) (Cassells, 2001)
100 Great Risottos Recipes from an
(Cassells, 2003) Italian Terrace
(Cassells, 2004)
Classic Italian Slow – A quickstep for
(MQP 2005) relaxed eating
(Cassell Oct. 2006)
Pasta Galore Regional Italian cookery series of 7 books
(Conran Octopus 2009) (Anness, from October 2009)
Television: Valentina’s many television appearances include:
UK: Team Captain on BBC 1 Eat your Words.- School Dinners - Open House - Classic Dishes - Carlton Food Network - Through The Keyhole - Food and Drink - Who’ll do the Pudding - - This Morning -The Heat is On - Esther! - Surprise Surprise - The Andrew Neil Show - Ready, Steady, Cook! - Valentina’s Italian Regional Cookery - Masterchef - Health UK - Good Morning with Anne and Nick -GM TV - Summer Scene - The Fish Course - Bazaar - Open Air, - Tasting History, - Good Food Live. International: Australia; New Zealand: South Africa, various, including the prestigious Top Billing show.
Radio:
BBC National Radio Stations 2, 4 and 5 Food Programmes – The Food Quiz,Veg Talk - Classic FM; Question of Taste - LBC - Talk Radio - Radio Wales. Australia; SBS recipe series for 1994, Australian Broadcasting Commission and many local stations in all cities on the Eastern seaboard. New Zealand; Many local stations in all key towns/cities on both North and South Islands. South Africa – Valentina regularly appears on several of South Africa’s best loved radio programmes during her visits to the country, including interviews with Jenny Morris, the Giggling Gourmet.
Journalistic Contributions:
The London Evening Standard -The Times - Sunday Times Magazine - The Mail on Sunday You Magazine - Sainsburys Masterclass Cook Book - Homes & Gardens – Woman & Home - Essentials - House of Fraser Magazine - Bella - Options - Family Circle -Insight Guide to Tuscany.- Decanter Magazine - BBC Good Food Magazine - BBC Good Food Vegetarian Magazine - The Radio Times - Taste - A la Carte – Food and Home Entertaining – Delicious
Nominations:
Best Cookery Series - BBC 2 ‘Italian Regional Cookery’, 1990. Glenfiddich Awards.
Best International Food Book- Recipes from an Italian Farmhouse. James Beard Awards, New York 1991. Best Cookery Book - Risotto !Risotto!- Andre Simon Awards 1998