For the past 20 years Elizabeth has been cooking and eating her way around the kitchens of Tuscany’s mamma’s and nonna’s, gleaning the secrets of this mythical culinary heritage.
Since packing up her London life, her Tuscan food quest has led her on all sorts of unexpected adventures. Most recently, and in the face of tough competition from Tuscan born chefs, Elizabeth was invited to Toronto Canada to represent Tuscan cuisine and hold a master class with effervescent young international chefs.
To complete her ‘Tuscan Dream’, her Florentine husband whom she met in the skies between Florence and London, shares this passion. Growing up in a Florentine family with three women dedicated full-time to the preparation of family meals, sowed the seeds of his extensive culinary heritage. Together they have cooked, hiked, biked and roamed, up and down the hills and valleys of Tuscany in search of pastures and plots of off-the-beaten-track artisan growers and producers at the heart of the Tuscan table.
Several years ago Elizabeth and Marco gave in to the call of this hobby central to their Tuscan country lifestyle, putting aside their separate professions to open a small restaurant in the garden of their 15th century watermill home in Tuscany near Florence, which in the meantime they had found, bought and restored, where they give free reign to what they call their ‘lifestyle cooking’. Here they share their experiences with other food and wine enthusiasts. Doggedly going against the flow of growth, expansion and profit in response to success and awards, they stick fast to their philosophy of a totally home-made traditional Tuscan menu, favouring local growers and producers of fresh, seasonal and traditional food and ingredients. Dining in the restaurant on a 35km menu is a culinary romp around the places of the people who produce.
The house motto says it all, ‘Cucinare è Voler Bene’ – ‘To Cook is To Love’.
‘Casa Ceri’ refers to Marco’s Florentine family history which dates back to 15th century Florence.
The logo is inspired by the Casa Ceri coat of arms