For the past twenty-five years, I’ve spent a lot of time interrogating farmers, cheesemakers, bakers, winemakers, fishermen, historians, cooks, and anyone else willing to answer my questions. Sometimes that questioning was for a newspaper story, guidebook, cookbook, television project, class, or tour; often, it was simply because I wanted to understand how things worked. Those […]

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For the past twenty-five years, I’ve spent a lot of time interrogating farmers, cheesemakers, bakers, winemakers, fishermen, historians, cooks, and anyone else willing to answer my questions. Sometimes that questioning was for a newspaper story, guidebook, cookbook, television project, class, or tour; often, it was simply because I wanted to understand how things worked.

Those conversations shaped my career. More importantly, they shaped how I understand Italy. One thing I’ve learned is that some of the most interesting people in Italian food are also the least accessible, not because they’re secretive. They’re busy running dairies, tending flocks, harvesting grapes, and baking bread. Many of the producers I admire don’t speak much English, don’t have websites, and aren’t particularly interested in becoming destinations.

For years, I’ve introduced travelers to some of these people through private custom trips. Those experiences have consistently been the highlight of my work. Watching someone spend an afternoon with a shepherd or walk through a vineyard with the person who farms it leaves a deeper impression than any museum, monument, or restaurant reservation ever could. That’s why I’m launching Deep , a series of culinary trips and my way of sharing those experiences with a wider community of curious travelers. Rome will be the inaugural journey, with future Deep Dives planned in other Italian cities and regions that have similarly shaped my understanding of the country.

These small-group journeys, limited to just twelve guests, are built around the relationships I’ve developed while reporting on Italian food culture. We’ll meet the people whose work has informed my writing, shaped my understanding of Italy, and occasionally changed my perspective. We’ll spend time in places that rarely appear on conventional itineraries because they’re functioning farms, workshops, cellars, kitchens, and food businesses rather than visitor attractions.

We’ll eat and drink exceptionally well, obviously. But food is only the starting point. Every meal, ingredient, and tradition exists within a larger context. Through conversations with the people who grow, make, and serve our food, we’ll explore the forces that have shaped Italy and continue to shape it today: archaeology and agriculture, migration and identity, politics and economics, urbanism and landscape, tradition and innovation.

The most memorable moments in my Italian life rarely happen at the table alone. They happen in conversations with a shepherd in the pasture, a baker beside the oven, a winemaker in the cellar, or a cook speaking candidly about the realities of their craft. These encounters transform food from something you simply consume into a lens for understanding a place and the people who call it home.

That’s what Deep Dives are about: using food as a pathway to a richer, more human understanding of Italy.

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