Bellagio, the pearl of Lake Como, is a medieval romantic town in the valley of the Italian Alps. It offers a breathtaking panorama, that for centuries enchants visitors from all over the world including the Italian renaissance man Leonardo Da Vinci.

In addition to its charm and culture, Bellagio offers a wide selection of culinary ventures. When we arrived in Bellagio after a 60 km drive from Milan for a 3-week stay, the name of one restaurant kept coming up, Il Salice Blu and its Chef Luigi Gandola

Il Salice Blu or The Blue Willow offers cooking lessons and since there were less than 8 participants when we signed up, we were able to work in the kitchen along with Chef Luigi and his team. More than 8 participants usually work in his cooking studio.

Taking a private cooking lesson at Salice Blu was like having a family gathering. Luigi picked us up at 10.00 AM with his car and we traveled along the winding road of Bellagio before arriving at Via per Lecco, 33.

Nana, Luigi’s 83-year-old grandmother greeted me with her smiles while keep watering colorful flowers.

On the table were cups of cappuccino and coconut meringue, bottles of olive oil, and aprons for the class.

Luigi’s parents, Flora Milan and Giacomo Gandola, opened Salice Blu in 1973 in an area that was once a vineyard. The restaurant was famous for its home style cooking, offering scallops with mushrooms, ox fillet en croute, and the traditional dessert of Bellagio, la Miascia (peasant cake).

Luigi Gandola, 30, started cooking at a young age, guided by his father and honed his culinary skills as an intern and then chef at the Grand Hotel Villa D’Este in Cernobbio, 45 minutes drive from Bellagio. His passion and creativity led him to win more than 30 national and international competitions including the Mediterranean Cuisine Champion for 5 years in a row.

After 6 years working at at Villa D’Este, Luigi returned to the family business and redecorated Salice Blu in 2005 without changing its basic structure. Outdoor sitting with the pergola is a favorite among customers, while the indoor sitting has a modern cozy style.

 We visited Salice Blu’s herb garden, located next to the Gandola family compound and behind the restaurant. It has 40 different aromatic herbs and vegetables where mama Flora regularly picks some for her famous Insalatina di mamma Flora.

The cooking lesson begins at 10.30 and when Chef Luigi kindly and patiently assisted us in making pasta from scratch, risotto and ravioli using fresh local products from the market. These would be part of our delightful lunch.

In preparing different color egg pasta, Luigi used plain (yellow) pasta dough, green pasta dough (spinach) and red pasta dough (beet). The basic pasta dough is a mix of durum wheat flour, eggs, saffron and salt.

We mixed the ingredients and used a rolling pin until the sheet can pass the pasta machine. With the yellow sheet as the base we put thin strips of pasta with different colors on it and rolled it again through the Imperial pasta machine.

The yellow pasta was also our ingredient for tagliatelle di pasta fresca ala Bolognese (fresh tagliatelle with Bolognese sauce). Chef Luigi made an appetizing Bolognese sauce with veal as the main item. As in most Italian meals, a must have part is extra virgin olive oil.

We also had the three-color pasta as basic ingredients for gnocchi and another dish, ravioli alla mozzarella di bufala e salsa di pesto (ravioli with buffalo mozzarella and pesto). Chef Luigi blended basil leaves, olive oil, pine nuts and a large pinch of salt for the pesto.

The cooking class was a multitasking event where we prepared a number of dishes. In between the pasta making, Chef Luigi taught us how to make risotto al fiori di zucchini e tartufo (risotto with truffle and zucchini flowers). The chef is mostly proud of the truffle scorzone, the underground mushroom, exclusively found in Bellagio.

Watching and eventually helping Chef Luigi prepared dessert was an indulgence. A difficult one is tartelleta alle mele Golden al profumo di nocciole con gelato alla noce di cocco (golden delicious apple and hazelnut tartlet with coconut ice cream). One tartlet has an apple thinly sliced, surrounded by butter and egg mixture, but becomes special because of ingredients such as hazelnut, brown sugar and ground cinnamon.

While the apple tartlet is considered a difficult dessert to make, an easy one according to Chef Luigi is the pistachio savarin. All forms of pistachio nuts passed our hands, pistachio powder, pistachio paste and chopped pistachio, which we of course couldn’t resist tasting, even before the savarin was ready.

We sat under the pergola at Salice Blu, savoring the lunch that we helped prepare. Nana, Luigi’s grandma, kept working, this time washing some dishes, and grumbled when Luigi asked her to get some rest.

Luigi gave personal attention to all his guests who came from all over the world. Half a day at Salice Blu flew so fast, but we will preserve the memories through Chef Luigi Gandola’s first book, appropriately titled Il Salice Blu. The Blu Willow.

The book, part biography and part cookbook, is a joy to read as it has the Gandola family history, Luigi’s professional life and the recipes of his signature dishes.

In Bellagio, a city popular for romantic escapades, one can taste from the finest dishes at a Michelin-starred restaurant to ancient trattoria, or the most typical but innovative cuisines of a pleasant family restaurant like Il Salice Blu.

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Images: Il Salice Blu, Omar Niode Foundation