Arianna Capra's approach to cooking happened partly by chance and partly by luck. After finishing middle school, without having a clear idea of what she wanted to do or become, she decided to enrol in a technical institute, which she abandoned a few years later to enrol in a hotel-management school and indulge her fledgling passion for cooking. Once graduated and still very young, Arianna left her lakeside home to embark on a series of adventures in Italian and international restaurants and hotels, passing through an Ayurveda hotel in Germany and an izakaya, a kind of Japanese tavern, in Switzerland, experiences that would very much leave their mark on her culinary philosophy. Despite the thrill of jumping from one kitchen to the next, Arianna soon found herself coming to terms with a hectic and stressful life and a discouraging reality: 'I realised that as a woman, I didn't feel that I was taken into proper consideration by many of my male colleagues. So when Covid put a stop to the lifestyle I was living, I realised that I was tired of moving around and not having any roots".
Taking her courage in both hands, with the essential support of her fiancé, she decided to start her own business, offering to work for people as personal chef, a service already highly sought-after by the many foreign tourists visiting Lake Como every year. In just a short time the business expanded to include cooking classes at home or in her home restaurant in Tremezzo. Suitable for young and old alike, her courses mainly revolve around fresh pasta, in all its diverse flavours, shapes and colours, whether using the likes of durum wheat semolina orecchiette or the ever-popular tagliatelle and stuffed pasta. Guided by her experience and skill, the customer can try their hand at making desserts and a range of traditional Italian recipes. The jewel in the crown of Arianna's original offerings is her “Dinners in the Tower”: gastronomic journeys for two in the setting of the ancient tower that stands in the garden of her partner's family villa and which offers an all-round view of Tremezzina and its natural beauty.
As in all the best kitchens, it is seasonality that guides Arianna's choices, who keeps a close eye on the freshness of the ingredients, which are strictly zero kilometres, like the fish from the lake and the vegetables from her own garden, which she has been cultivating for years with care and dedication. Arianna's gastronomic service is the result of study and preparation, but also, and perhaps above all, of a genuine love for the land, its fruits and Italian culture. She reworks these traditions in contemporary key through a very personal vision. 'I consider myself a feminist,' says Arianna, 'outside and inside the kitchen. Of all the people I have met over the years in other people's kitchens, it was a woman, a French-born cook named Patricia, who inspired me and made me fall in love with this job. In her kitchen I found so much femininity and kindness. Much of what I am today I owe to her'.
Simple, genuine and generous, with her dishes Arianna aims to tell stories that people will fall in love with and be moved by, leaving behind positive memories of their time spent together. The undisputed heart of each experience is the authenticity reflected in the recipes and own playfulness, which has always been a part of her character: 'Perhaps it may sound trivial, but one of the fondest memories of cooking dates back to when I was a child and I used to pick flowers and herbs from my garden and mix them with ingredients stolen from my mother's kitchen to create strange concoctions. You know, creativity is something one is born with.