Chef Benedetta Vitali has lived and worked all her life in Florence, Italy. In 1979, she co-founded the popular restaurant Cibrèo with Fabio Picchi, offering their fellow Florentines a connection to a traditional Tuscan cooking style that had been all but forgotten in the postwar trend of convenience foods. In 1999, Benedetta opened the trattoria Zibibbo, emphasizing fresh produce from nearby small farms and introducing her original interpretations of classic recipes. She is the author of Soffrito: Tradition & Innovation in Tuscan Cooking and of La Cucina degli Affetti | Catering and Caring: 124 Recipes for Cooking with Love.

"We owe Benedetta Vitali a great debt for opening a window on a disappearing way of life where food, people and landscape are inextricably bound."  — Sally Pasley Vargas, Author of Food for Friends

Benedetta teaches cooking classes in Italy and in the United States.  Read more from the drop-down menu under Classes.

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Paintings throughout this site are by Antonio Andreucci
Home page gallery photographs are by Cary Wolinsky