Getty Villa Relaunches Celebrity Chef Series with Frances Mayes, Author of the Tuscan Sun Cookbook

Talk, book signing, and gourmet lunch celebrate Mediterranean cuisine at the Getty Villa

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Mar 15, 2012

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The Celebrity Chef Series returns to the Getty, beginning Wednesday, April 4, at the Villa with Frances Mayes, author of the recently released The Tuscan Sun Cookbook.

Food has always played a starring role in Mayes’ bestselling trilogy (Under the Tuscan Sun, Bella Tuscany, and Every Day in Tuscany) about her life in Italy, where she and her husband live in a renovated Tuscan villa and enjoy “the voluptuousness of Italian life”. This is her first cookbook and her first opportunity to share some of the robust, honest recipes that she regularly enjoys with her husband and their Italian friends.

Mayes signs books beginning at 10:30am, followed by an illustrated talk about her culinary adventures and al fresco life in Tuscany from 12–1pm. Afterward, enjoy a formal, three-course prix fixe lunch in the Founder’s Room of the Getty Villa, or a more casual lunch at the Villa café, both featuring recipes from The Tuscan Sun Cookbook.

The Getty Villa is the ideal setting for a discussion of Italian food. Dedicated to the study of the arts and culture of ancient Rome, Greece and Etruria, the Villa is modeled after a first-century Roman country house, including authentic gardens featuring the fruit trees and fragrant annuals and perennials used by the ancient Romans in cooking. The Villa’s permanent collection includes vessels used in dining and depictions of banquets and revelry, and the walls of the outer peristyle are decorated with trompe l’oeil representations of fruits, vegetables, fish, and fowl destined for the table. Daily tours of the gardens and the collection are available free of charge.

The formal prix fixe lunch is $75 a person, or $90 with wine pairings. To make reservations for the prix fixe lunch, visit Celebrity Chef Series: A Culinary Exploration or call (310) 440–7300. Reservations for the café are not required.

The book-signing and lecture are free, as is admission to the Getty Villa, but advance, timed tickets are required. Parking is $15. The Tuscan Sun Cookbook can be ordered online when you purchase tickets, and will be available in the Museum store on April 4.

The Getty will be scheduling more Celebrity Chef events at both the Villa and the Getty Center, connecting food and wine with the collections and exhibitions at the Museum.

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