News & Pressarte italia explores italian food, culture in classic old houseBy Susan Skorupa An old Reno house has a new life devoted to italian culture, especially food and art. The Joseph Giraud House at Flint Street and California Avenue was built in 1914. In recent years, it has held a series of restaurants; it's now home to arte italia. "We have two missions," said Kristen Avansino, president and executive director of the E.L. Wiegand Foundation, which owns the building and supports arte italia. "One is exploration of italian cuisine. The vehicle is visits of italian chefs from various parts of Italy." The idea is if you want to learn to make pesto from Genoa, learn from a Genovese chef, Avansino said. When a chef is featured on the arte italia Web site, people can sign up for classes that take place in the mansion's modernized and remodeled kitchen. Fees are based on the specifics of the classes and are donated to St. Vincent's Dining Room. "It's a very personal setting," Avansino said of the cooking class structure. "It's not exclusionary; it's hands-on, learn by doing. The experience is a true traditional representation." The opening class, A Taste of Sorrento with Chef Biagio Longo, was in October. The kitchen in the 7,275-square-foot house was renovated and updated to hold the classes. The rest of the building, designed by Frederic DeLongchamps, also has undergone reconstruction and repair, including the removal of some of the decorative touches added over the years by previous owners.
"We realized some features were not possible to sustain," Avansino said. "Some bric-a-brac, also other things that were put on needed to come down. We set out methodically and delicately to strip away the junk. We wanted to bring it back to a semblence of the original structure." More chef visits are planned, perhaps eventually as many as five or six a year, Avansino said. "If we do three in the first year that are quality, we would feel gratified," she said. arte italia's other mission is the representation of traditional italian culture, Avansino said. The arte italia foundation is associated with other organizations, such as the Museo Italo Americano in San Francisco. "We collaborate and coordinate our activities with existing organizations," she said. "It's an exciting way to provide experience for Nevadans." "Planting Roots, Reaping the Harvest," the first exhibition, was held in October and represented the emergence of the wine industry in the Napa-Sonoma region of California and the influence of italian-Americans in the industry. It included advertisements, vineyard photos, news stories, promotional pieces and photographs, starting from the early days of Napa-Sonoma's winemaking history, focusing on the italian families that came to grow grapes to sell or make wine. Other exhibitions are planned. The Truckee Meadows also has a rich history of representation by italian families, Avansino said. Family traditions don't magically preserve themselves, she said, so the foundation set out to take on that task. "Some families pass them down, some do not," she said. "We realize these traditions of cuisine may not be omnipresent." |
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