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Zusatztext " Stephanie Cole paints Tuscany vividly from the olive groves to the vineyards. Breakfasts of Bavarian-filled pastry and elegant dinners with white truffle pappardelle blend with clever sleuthing and hysterical mishaps. A delightful mystery, both comforting and exotic, peppered with unexpected characters."- - Krista Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Dog Who Knew Too Much , on Al Dente's Inferno Additional Praise for Stephanie Cole and the Tuscan Cooking School mysteries "An intriguing mystery and an intelligent heroine make for the perfect combination. Pull up a chair, pass the parmesan, mangia!"—Kylie Logan, national bestselling author of Italian Iced “This book made me want to travel to Tuscany, live in a centuries-old convent in Cortona…and follow the engaging Nell Valenti on every adventure.”—Julia Buckley, bestselling author of the Writer's Apprentice novels Informationen zum Autor Stephanie Cole Klappentext American chef Nell Valenti's high hopes for a successful Tuscan farm-to-table cooking school are in danger of withering on the vine in this delectable cozy mystery. Nell Valenti is settling into her role of transforming the Villa Orlandini into a superb farm-to-table cooking school, and the time has finally come for a full taste test run. But when Chef Orlandini prepares to reveal his top secret marinara recipe for the first time to a group of American gastro-tourists, Nell realizes she might have bitten off more than she can chew.Nell begins to suspect that one of the tourists is actually a private detective sent to spy on her by her overprotective father, and the fussy foodies are noisy and disrespectful from the very start of the Marinara Mysteriosa workshop. Even worse, when one visitor appears to be poisoned by the famous marinara recipe, Nell will have to work fast to uncover a killer and keep a lid on bad press before her fresh start is spoiled for good. Leseprobe 1 Five o'clock Early October There were six of us assembled for final preparations in the common room of the Villa Orlandini on a hillside just outside of Cortona, Italy. The villa was home to Chef Claudio Orlandini, his Cornell-educated olive-growing son, Pete, and an assortment of helpful women of the Bari family-not the least of which was the redoubtable Annamaria, the sixty-ish sous-chef who had been keeping the Orlandini household humming along for decades. Not quite a month ago, I, Nell Valenti, had been transatlanticly wooed by a lawyer representing the Orlandinis to come to Cortona, Italy, and develop a world-class cooking school at their villa. Five hundred years ago the property was home to the order of St. Veronica of the Veil, but that was back in the day when the joint was a run-down convent and not the fine, run-down villa it was today. And now, I thought, here we were, on the eve, on the brink, very possibly even on the ledge, for all I knew. Chef, Pete, Annamaria, Rosa, Sofia, and I. Chef dubbed the theme for our first "intensive" Marinara Misteriosa. This culinary virtuoso had found himself longing for the days of his explosive rocketing onto the culinary world stage back in his twenties when his own secret marinara recipe was introduced to Italian sauce lovers the world over, who instantly proclaimed it the finest advancement in marinara development in the last two hundred years. Love, fame, and money followed. But now? I had my doubts. How many people, I argued, are going to spring for round-trip airfare plus our fees, not to mention clear their own schedules at short notice, for four days at the villa to learn something they could probably figure out at home just by popping the lid on a jar of Newman's Own? The answer came within days of launching the website: five. Five Americans sign...
