Meet Silvana

Some travellers come to Italy to discover it. Others come to find it again. Silvana, who lives in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, belongs to the second group. She travelled with her husband for six weeks and seven cities, and she says she came home pretty fluent in Italian and full of stories.

Silvana is an Italian-Australian cook and the owner of Fifth Ave Katoomba Retreat, where she teaches hands-on Italian cooking classes. Her menu comes mostly from Calabria, with a few Sicilian recipes added in memory of her late mother-in-law, an amazing cook. Her teaching philosophy fits in a single line: the focus is on food and family.

When she decided to return to Italy, she wanted to see parts of the country she had never visited before, without spending months planning it. She contacted Italy Trails, and Cristina from our team designed a bespoke itinerary around her preferences and her hotel choices.

In this post we introduce Silvana the way she introduced herself to us: through her name, her family, her kitchen and the trip that took her back to her roots.

A name from the cinema, a family from Italy

Even Silvana’s name has a story. It was inspired by Silvana Mangano, the Italian actress who was a star in the 1960s. Silvana is the third daughter of Italian immigrants who moved to Australia in 1966, and in the Italian tradition the first two daughters were named after their grandmothers. Hers came from the movies.

Silvana describes herself as a country girl, and her kitchen follows the same logic: lots of fresh ingredients, often homegrown, prepared in simple, quick ways that are still full of flavour.

Cooking is a family affair for her. She runs her classes with the help of her sister and her mother, whom she calls the quintessential Nonna. Her husband has his own link to the old country: his Sicilian was, in her words, rather broken until this trip. And the Sicilian recipes she teaches come from her late mother-in-law, whose cooking she still remembers with admiration.

This is why her classes feel different from a typical cooking lesson. They are not about a chef’s technique. They pass on what an Italian family has carried to Australia since 1966: recipes, habits and a way of sitting at the table.

Fifth Ave Katoomba Retreat

Silvana teaches at her own property, Fifth Ave Katoomba Retreat, at 10 Fifth Ave in Katoomba, in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales. The retreat is self-managed and family-run, and has welcomed guests since 2011. It stands about five minutes from the Three Sisters rock formation, and it works as a holiday house as well as a cooking school: three bedrooms, space for up to eight people, fully self-contained and with linen included.

The classes are small and unhurried. They are limited to a maximum of eight people, suitable for ages seven and up, and guests can book a private class on a date of their choice or join a scheduled group class. Anyone who wants to help with the cooking is welcome to, which Silvana considers the best way to make what is learned in class stick.

Every class ends the Italian way: with a sit-down meal around the table, a custom that runs through the whole of Italy. As Silvana puts it, participants arrive as strangers and leave as family. One guest wrote in a review that she thought a certain recipe was lost, and felt lucky to find the class that brought it back.

Beyond the classes, the retreat offers night cooking classes, an Italian summer lunch, a Ferragosto celebration, mushrooming day trips, gift vouchers and packages that combine a stay with a class. The tagline on the website sums it up: experience the Italian way of life, with good food and great company.

What is on the menu

Silvana’s classes follow the food of Calabria, with a handful of Sicilian dishes added. The dishes she mentions most are pasta alla Norma, stuffed zucchini, crisp arancini, light and fluffy gnocchi, and homemade bread, closed by wine, espresso and tiramisu. The idea is the same in every class: lots of fresh food, prepared in simple and quick ways, yet full of flavour, so that you want to come back for more.

The class list on the retreat’s website is wider than any single region. Guests can choose among bread making, pasta and sauce making, ravioli, agnolotti, gnocchi, pizza, lasagne, stuffed vegetables, arancini and meatballs, Italian biscuits and Sicilian cannoli. It is a useful reminder that an Italian family table rarely stays inside one border, especially after a few generations and a Sicilian mother-in-law.

Her approach also explains why her trip back to Italy mattered so much. Silvana looked for the typical dish of every area she visited, and the family tables were her time out from playing tourist. At a cousin’s lunch she ate a rolled spadola fish, known in English as silver scabbard fish, together with swordfish parmigiana, swordfish and prawns coated in breadcrumbs, parsley and parmesan. Her aunt served saffron rice with nine other dishes to a gathering of fifteen people. Another aunt, in Turin, cooked linguine with locally foraged porcini and a dash of homemade pesto.

She is, by her own admission, completely biased: her family’s cooking was still the best she ate in six weeks.

Six weeks, seven cities, no rush

Silvana and her husband had already done a 27-day European tour years earlier, visiting five or six countries. This time they wanted the opposite: fewer places, more time. In each city they stayed long enough for an organised tour, a visit to a nearby area of note, a day at leisure and a day to travel. Walking became their routine, averaging about ten kilometres a day, and she says her chronic aches and pains disappeared along the way.

Their private tours were within walking distance of the hotel, with a personal guide and never more than six people. The guides spoke English, but loved that the couple spoke Italian, and often switched to it. Silvana’s husband returned home saying “a dopo”, see you later, a phrase he had never used in Australia.

The water was a highlight. Boat trips along the coast showed emerald and teal water, and a day trip to Monterosso in the Cinque Terre ended with an unplanned swim after they forgot their swimsuits. In Verona they walked to Piazza Bra every evening for the atmosphere, and in Manarola a local couple at the next table explained how pesto is made there. Silvana does not remember the details, only that it was the best she has ever eaten.

In Sardinia, a driver took them 140 kilometres from Alghero to Orgosolo, so she could see the village’s political murals. It was arranged at the last minute and was not part of the itinerary. He then took them to see a nuraghe, one of the ancient stone towers of the island, in an area called Silanus. Silvana joked that adding a v makes it Silvanus, and the attendant told her that this was the area’s old name. She does not believe in coincidences.

She also had the culurgiones she was looking for, handmade pasta pockets filled with potato, mint and pecorino, and the accommodation surprised her: old monasteries and family oil and wine estates, chosen from three to five options Cristina sent for each stay. The Italy Trails app, the first-class train seats and replies within minutes at any hour completed the picture. Her practical tips: always find the lift at the station, and travel light.

From her table to ours

Silvana came home with more Italian, a few new recipes in her head and plenty of photographs. She also came home convinced that Italy is best enjoyed slowly, with local people and around a table, which is exactly how she teaches.

If you would rather meet Silvana, you can book a class at Fifth Ave Katoomba Retreat in the Blue Mountains. You can find classes, events and gift vouchers on the retreat’s website, or write to info@FifthAveKatoombaRetreat.com . And if Italy is next on your list, tell us what you would like to see and eat, and we will design the trip around it.