Food&Health Lab
I am an Italian-Swedish Dietitian Nutritionist: I love cooking, eating, growing vegetables, and helping people to find the diet that best suits their needs. Healthy and nutritious meals are tasty, fun, and easy to prepare. There is no need to be a professional chef to be a good cook. In my kitchen you can learn tips and tricks of the Mediterranean diet and innovative recipes to please yourself and your family.
CUCINA³ – from the theory to the pan – is a Food and Health Lab in the hills north of Florence, just 30 minutes from the city center. Why this name? CUCINA³ stands for Cucina-al-cubo, i.e. Kitchen-at-the-Cube, or kitchen-cubed: in our family we call our house “il Cubo” or “The Cube”, because of its shape.
I grew up in a multicultural home, where happy cooking and healthy eating were part of everyday life: my mother brought to the family her creativity and Swedish traditions, while the Italian side of the family enriched it with countless recipes from the Mediterranean regions.
I worked most of my life as a research dietitian, in different centers in Italy and in the U.S., studying the relation between food, health and chronic diseases. But then I started feeling the need to work in contact with people rather than just analyzing data. I wanted to help people to apply scientific findings to their everyday lives. Healthy meals are not boring at all: healthy meals are tasty and fun to prepare.
At CUCINA³ you can attend different types of classes, depending on your interests and needs. We will prepare a meal and eat together, admiring the surrounding landscape. You will learn how to prepare tasty dishes, but also the reason why they are good for your health: we will discuss nutrients, energy, recommended intakes, cooking methods, health and diseases. I offer a variety of classes, which you can see in the Available Classes section. But I am also happy to set up new classes to meet your specific needs. Feel free to contact me
How was the Cubo born…
When my husband, kids and I moved to Florence in 1997 we started looking for a house on the hills, in the heart of Tuscany. It took a long time, but we found one in 2006: an old barn of the Medici Villa of Pratolino, dating from the 1700s, with a more recent annex. The property is called La Fangaccia. Because of its history, the building is protected by the laws for monuments and landscape, and so obtaining a construction permit was quite a complicated process. With the help of a great Architect, Lorena Luccioni, and other professionals, we finally moved in 12 years later. We live in the old barn, all made of stone and wood, as in the Tuscan tradition, while the big open space of the newer building is perfect for teaching and cooking activities.
The kitchen is modern, but externally the building is finished with the same stones as the antique construction. All around, a terrace links the two buildings, creating space for the wood oven, the grill, the vegetable garden and ping pong table. There also is a lawn for playing, relaxing or setting up a tent, when too many friends arrive at once. The fruit orchard and our olive trees are close to the house, down the hill. 
We love taking care of our olive trees, and we gather family and friends for the harvest in early November: we then bring the olives to a frantoio in the area to press our tasty Extra Virgin Olive Oil.
All this comes with an undisturbed view of the Valley of the Mugnone, running from Olmo all the way to Florence, just below the hill of Fiesole. So, here we are: the kitchen is ready to host small classes of people interested in tasty food and healthy nutrition.
