Who are we?

I am Francesca Ricci, an architect and lover of cuisine, healthy living and history.
My family has had many exceptional cooks with roots from both Italy and Algeria. Thanks to this particular situation I grew up surrounded by different cultures intersecting and cross-contaminating each other. This spurred my curiosity and creativity, pushing me to both experiment and find connections to my origins.
I love to communicate and pass on my passions and some years ago me and Katia D’angelo, a friend who shared in my enthusiasm, decided to establish this association.
 

My name is Katia D’angelo, I have lived in Florence for many years but am originally Apullian.

My love for animals and love of nature along with my passion for art, music and good food pushed me to organize events with live music and fine dining in historical locations here in Florence. All these experiences have led me to Historiam Firenze. The pleasures of healthy living and the sharing of experiences brought me to this project and its mission to preserve and adapt ancient traditions that would have been otherwise lost.

 

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Francesca
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Katia
How did we get here?

Our project was inspired by an historical dinner put together by the school teacher of our children. It was up to us parents to research and prepare dishes typical of the era the play was written in. Thus, while researching what to prepare I came upon De re coquinaria and was stunned to discover the peculiarity of those ancient dishes, as well as the exquisite flavors hidden in them.

We then decided to further research these ancient recipes by reading the many records that survived through time, selecting what recipes appeared most interesting and experimenting on those that would be compatible with our modern palate.

It was surprising just to discover so many unique flavors and realize the many forgotten condiments so commonly used by our ancestors but forgotten by us. This pushed us to put together Historiam Firenze, not just to preserve history but to get to know it through what we eat and to rediscover those ingredients that have fallen out of use in our kitchens.

We worked with many agritourism in the tuscanian area developing projects about the history of our sauces and how our preservational effort tie so closely with environmentally friendly practices and the healthiness of what we eat. We are extremely pleased to share our vision and products with everyone and discover with you new ways in which our past can inform the future. Together with the association Abstract, which represents Florentine guides, we have organized many encounters that focused on the history of food in Florence and of our sauces. We took part in the international artisanal fair of Florence with genuine.zero, a site that aims to close the gap between local makers and the citizens. Thanks to this event we were able to get to know many small and big artisanal realities with which we built ties and furthered a synergetic path through our shared values. With Fabio Picci, owner of the notorious restaurant Il Cibreo in Florence, we were invited on Italian television channel Rai Tre on the program Geo as guest speakers about ancient roman cuisine. We took part in numerous events always tied to the artisanal world and healthy living together with industry leaders, all representing an extremely diverse environment. The stories behind our sauces have now been told to a vast number of people, they have been tasted by all kinds of clients and always which, pushed by curiosity and the rich history behind these products they always found the enjoyment of one went hand in hand with the enjoyment of the other.

Experience a taste of historical cuisine

To do so we made these 4 products, Apicius’ in vase sauce, Epytirum, Allec, e Red Piccatiglio in which we have put together all the knowledge that came from historical sources, the excellence of our ingredients, the uniqueness of aromatic plants of old, the intensity of spices and the freshness of our ingredients. All through the reality of our artisanal entrepreneurship.

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