From left to right: Lucy Lean, Nancy Silverton, Douglas Gayeton and Laura Howard. photo by Diane Cu
 
Many thanks to everyone who came to our dinner last Thursday at Mozza and for making it such a success. We raised a lot of money for the children of the 24th St School - hopefully they'll have a kitchen in their garden very soon. 
Many thanks to Nancy Silverton and Matt Molina for cooking up such a great selection of pizzas followed by a sumptuous four course dinner.
Many thanks to Joe Bastianich for providing all the delicious wine and for giving us Stefano Biscotto who educated us about the vino we were drinking from Bastianich, Mozza and Palmina. We compared the Italian wines to the more locally produced Palmina from Santa Barbara. 
Many thanks to Douglas Gayeton, the author/photographer of the book SLOW life in a tuscan town and his wife Laura Howard who traveled down to Los Angeles in time to share some of the original artwork from the book with us and stories from his times in Italy. He signed books and chatted with guests.  We still have a couple of signed first editions of the book for sale $50 - if you would like one please email lucy@edibleLA.com.
 

4th of July has always been a weird holiday for me being a Brit. That which is being celebrated is essentially my country on the losing side… so I’ve never been one to jump up and down waving a flag – unless the flag was the Union Jack or unless I was celebrating independence in general!  
All that however, has to change this year having just become an American Citizen. My US passport arrived in the mail days ago. So this year I have planned a big party to celebrate the 4th – and have combined it with my daughter’s birthday party. We have a great view of fireworks from our house and our friends always come up to share the evening.