Description This was a superb Bay Leaves Tree I had on my garden when I was living in South Italy. The owner of the house we rented in the countryside, a sixty five years old lady, could not tell us how old that tree was. It was already there when her grandfather both the land. I had never seen one so ancient before then.When the wind was blowing from the garden (where the tree was) to the house, through the open windows came an intense and aphrodisiac scent. Every time I was cooking something I was never forgetting to go out for a moment and gather fresh and crispy leaves, for my dishes based on meat, fish or legumes. Then in the evening, after a pleasant dinner, we sat under that huge bay leaves tree and in the cool of its shade smelling of earth, humus, we were breathing the quite sunset and waiting for the sun disappears beyond the horizon.
Alessandra Andrisani, Palo Alto Member Since March 2013 Artist Statement Alessandra Andrisani was born in Matera, Basilicata, South Italy. The fifth of six sisters, daughter of non-immigrant parents, she herself emigrated to the United States in 2003. She worked as a chef in California for a number of years, then returned to Matera to help a friend open a restaurant. Not fully satisfied, she turned her attention to painting and writing. Needing to settle on a path for her future, but unable to decide which of these three passions she wanted to pursue, she decided to put them together. Thus began this adventure in composing painted recipes in connection with anecdotes of her life. Her paintings are slowly gaining favor with the public and can be sampled with the first chapter (published on amazon) of her first upcoming and unique painted cookbook, which is part of a memoir that relates her childhood in Italy with the celebration of food and the art of living!