Diane Seed's Culinary Adventures

Diane Seed, author of the best-selling "The Top One Hundred Pasta Sauces" and many other books on Italian cooking, has lived in Rome for over 30 years. She has a cooking school in her own home in the beautiful Doria Pamphili palace in the centre of Rome at Piazza Venezia. Her apartment is in the part of the palace used to house guests on the Grand Tour, and the cooking school has a round window that looks over Piazza Venezia, down to the Forum and the Colosseum.

Diane also runs other cooking schools in Italy – in early Autumn she has a week in Puglia and a week in the AmalfiCoast , avoiding the chaotic, high season crowds. In 2009 she will be re-introducing Sicily into the programme.

Diane used to drive round Greece every summer when her children were small, and her ‘Mediterranean Dishes’ includes many delicious Greek specialities. In 2006, during a moment of frustration at standard tourist food, Diane decided to organize a gastronomic week on the small, unspoiled island of Sifnos, with a winning combination of cooking, eating and drinking beside ‘the wine dark’ or sunny sea.

Last year fans of her Indian cookbook urged her to organise a similar experience in Goa and Kerala. It was a great success so it has now become a yearly fixture and Diane plans to include North India and Marrakech in her itineraries.