Italian Cooking Lessons with Venturi's Table

Venturi’s Table is London’s first Corporate Cookery Centre, custom-built to provide cookery themed Italian Cooking Lessons. The centre is the brainchild of Anna Venturi and her daughter Letizia Tufari, a passionate partnership dedicated to the quality of service they provide.

Based in Wandsworth the centre includes two large state-of-the-art kitchens which can comfortably hold 30 people each with the whole cookery centre able to accommodate up to 60 guests.

Modelled in the style of a stunning Chelsea home, the facilities are equipped to showcase the best of Italian, Indian, and Japanese cooking. Both kitchens make the perfect location for both filming and photography hire.

In addition the Corportate Cookery Centre also makes the perfect backdrop to creative meetings, product launches, private parties and client entertaining

In true Milanese fashion Anna and Letizia have ensured the corporate cookery experience at Venturi’s Table is desirable, the food delicious and the welcome warm.

THE MILANESE MOTHER AND DAUGHTER TEAM REPACKAGING COOKING FOR FTSE 100’S

ANNA VENTURI AND LETIZIA TUFARI
- THE MILANESE MOTHER AND DAUGHTER TEAM REPACKAGING COOKING FOR FTSE 100’S -

Venturi’s Table is the brainchild of a Milanese mother and daughter team, Anna Venturi and Letizia Tufari who are passionate about using food and the atmosphere of the kitchen to bring people together and have designed a means for this to be applied to working life.

These two, driven women from Italy, renowned for its 'women in the kitchen' mentality, have turned this tradition on its head and built a business around reinterpreting it. They have since hosted some of the UK's top businesses in their Corporate Cookery Centre which they built from scratch, including Apple, GSK, Ebay, Green & Blacks and Coca Cola…to name a few.

Anna Venturi, Managing Director

What do I love most in life? Good company, great food, entertaining, working in a creative and friendly environment and hot Sicilian summers.

My professional interest in food really began when I first came to England from Milan. I remember being at a food show and watching a celebrated chef prepare a simple tomato sauce. The audience seemed really impressed. I thought this is mad- people don’t understand how easy it is to make good, simple food. I felt I had a lot to offer in this field and so, in 1993, set up a small cookery class from my home kitchen in Buckinghamshire, sharing the recipes passed down to me from my grandmother, mother and nanny.

The classes began to outgrow my kitchen and led to me opening a cookery school in Beaconsfield which was later expanded to include a catering service and gourmet shop. I was also asked to write a book based on the recipes I shared and ‘Secrets from an Italian Kitchen’ was published in 2000 by Pavilion Books. 

Ten years experience in teaching people how to cook has taught me a lot about food and even more about human relationships. Primarily it has made me realise that cooking is one of the best ways of bringing people together. I measure the success of my business by the reactions I get from people on a daily basis. Seeing everyone relaxing and having fun is what makes Venturi’s Table’s so special for me.

My favourite meal

I was in Sicily for the olive oil harvest at the end of October a few years ago. The young owners of a mill invited us to take part in a preview of some of the new oil from the season’s olives. As the olives were pressed in front of my eyes we were presented with an amazing array of locally produced Sicilian food. Melt-in-the-mouth sheep’s milk ricotta, homemade sun-dried tomatoes, Sicilian sausage and pecorino from the farm a few kilometres down the road. Then a neighbouring baker arrived with two large loaves of warm bread straight from his oven. We dipped the fragrant bread, ricotta and sausage into the young oil and I can honestly say no flavours I have ever experienced have had so much clarity and been so extraordinarily delicious. This was matched with the incredibly friendly and generous hospitality of our hosts.

Letizia Tufari, Director

I have always been very driven career-wise, even as a girl I dreamed of being the sales director of a multi-national company. After several years working in the States and in London for a large pharmaceutical firm, my dream was well on the way to becoming true. Surprisingly for me, it didn’t feel right. It started to dawn on me that I wasn’t interested in my boss’ job or in climbing a corporate ladder. I realised that I wanted my skills and hard work to make a tangible impact on the company I was working for, which I could recognise and be proud of. What I needed was a friend with a small business…

My mum already had an established business in Beaconsfield teaching women classic Italian cooking. Our family has a real culture of cooking and, like her, it has always been in my blood. Although I was slightly apprehensive about the prospect of working with my

mother I saw an opportunity to forge a new career around something I was truly passionate about.

Going into business with my mum has been one of the most challenging and rewarding things that I have done. We’re a feisty duo but we work well together. The development of Venturi’s Table has been particularly interesting for me as I can see my previous life in the business people we work with. I can appreciate both the challenges and the pressures of their ‘nine to fives’ and can share how effective the smell of rising pizza dough can be as a stress reliever!

My favourite meal

This has to be my ‘last supper’ as a single girl. On the day of my wedding in Sicily, I sat down with my bridesmaids and my mum for Spaghetti al Pomodoro (spaghetti with tomato sauce) followed by Rosetta’s meatballs. The meatballs were, as usual, to die for and were as heart-warming as the conversation- the perfect preparation for walking down the aisle. 

Business timeline

1993 – Italian Secrets’ cookery school is set up by Anna Venturi from her home in Buckinghamshire

1995 –Italian Secrets opens a shop in Beaconsfield selling gourmet food, offering catering services and providing a new venue for Anna to host her cookery classes

2000 – Anna Venturi’s book ‘Secrets from an Italian Kitchen’ is published

2003- Letizia Tufari joins Italian Secrets

December 2004 – The Beaconsfield Italian Secrets is sold

February 2005 – Building work starts in Wandsworth Town to form the UK’s first dedicated Corporate Cookery Centre

5th May 2005 – The centre (at this time called ‘Italian Secrets’) opens its doors to Barclay’s Capital for its first cookery class

February 2007 – A second, state-of-the-art kitchen is built in response to a huge demand for the classes

October 2007 – The centre is given a name to separate it from Italian Secrets’ existing catering business - Venturi’s Table. The second kitchen is opened and Thai, Japanese, Sushi and Indian cooking are added as menu options.

For more information about Venturi’s Table or to book a gourmet cookery experience companies can call 020 8875 7488 or visit www.venturis-table.com.

- Ends -

Notes to Editors:

For more information about Venturi’s Table, to obtain photography or request an interview please contact:

(9:30am – 5:30pm)

Caroline Wade, Venturi’s Table press office

T: 020 8875 7488

E: caroline@venturis-table.com

Venturi’s Table is a division of Italian Secrets catering company.

About Italian Secrets

Anna Venturi launched Italian Secrets catering company in 1995 and was joined by Letizia Tufari eight years later. A mother and daughter team, originally from Milan, the company has grown from their passion for good food and Northern Italian sense of style and design- perfect ingredients for creating chic, polished events.

Italian Secrets offers bespoke catering with a meticulous attention to detail for both the private and corporate market. Their food captures the best kept secrets of an Italian kitchen using the finest, freshest ingredients sourced from specialist suppliers.

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