In Lecce, Making Magic with Humble Ingredients

April 20, 2014

“the former aristocracy demanded that the poor workers hand over the lion’s share of their toil,” said Silvestro Silvestori, who in 2003 founded the Awaiting Table Cookery School in Lecce, a pioneering program that has imparted the secrets of boiled chicory, pickled hyacinth bulbs and other local bounty to more than 2,000 guests who have attended its weeklong cooking courses. “What the wealthy didn’t care about were the legumes and weeds, and that’s where our kitchen begins.”