If You Want to Understand the Sicilian Food Culture, There's One Woman: Bonetta dell'Oglio

"Bonetta dell'Oglio was born in Palermo where she learnt to appreciate the value of good cooking as a child. Soon after completing her education at Gordonstoun College, where she studied within the English education system, she spent several years restoring and decorating the old palaces of Palermo.Finally in 2004 she decided to turn her passion for gourmet cuisine into a profession. She started the restaurant “La Dispensa dei Monsù”, where she directs, manages and cooks, and through which she has achieved national notoriety.Despite not having a press office of her own, she has gained significant coverage from the major tourist guide books and international press.

After many years of arranging and managing official catering at private events for public bodies in Sicily’s major cities, and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Rome, her fame and her passion for organic agriculture led her to a meeting with Nicholas Joly whom she invited to run a seminar in Palermo. This was to have a great impact on her future approach to cooking. In recent years she has created innovative dishes such as Sushiliano® – a Sicilian version of sushi – the deconstructed Cassata, and many more interventions on the restaurant menu which she updates weekly. Her cooking is based on products grown using the bio-dynamic approach to farming and she is herself a passionate advocate of organic agriculture and bio-dynamic wine production. She has now closed the restaurant, to be free to travel and spread her Sicilianity all around the world."