Le Jeune Chef Restaurant

Lifelong Education Center, Rm. B107 · For reservations phone (570) 320-CHEF or (570) 320-2433

Visiting Chef

* This biography was accurate at the time of the chef's appearance on campus. (February 5, 2005)

Giulietta Giavannoni

Stefania Balducci

Two native Tuscan chef/innkeepers came to Pennsylvania College of Technology in February to work with students and host an Italian dining event for invited guests on with the menu “A Taste of the Tuscan Sun.”

The chefs – Giulietta Giavannoni and Stefania Balducci – came to Penn College direct from Italy. They also conducted two small-group cooking classes, after which participants sat down with the chefs and ate what they had prepared. The visit by Giavannoni and Balducci expanded the school's Visiting Chef series to include not only distinguished chefs from around the United States, but also from around the world.

Giavannoni, born and raised in Firenze, Italy, owns Fagiolari, a bed and breakfast inn surrounded by olive groves and vineyards, located in the Chianti region of Tuscany.

The five-room, converted stone farmhouse is situated in the hilly northern region of medieval villages and farms, where little has changed in centuries. In the inn’s kitchen, Giavannoni conducts cooking classes for her guests, as well as guests of other accommodations in the area.

Balducci was born and raised in the hill town of Assisi, and her passion for cooking is rooted in the Italian tradition of cooking together with family in the home.

Balducci worked with Giovannoni in her bed and breakfast for three years and is now beginning her own catering and Italian-cooking-lessons business in Holland.

The visit provided an opportunity for students in the College’s School of Hospitality to work side-by-side with the chefs throughout their visit to learn their techniques and prepare Saturday’s benefit dinner.

Net proceeds from both the cooking classes and the dinner were used for the Roger and Peggy Madigan Library Campaign.

The library – named for state Sen. Roger A. Madigan (a member of the Penn College Board of Directors) and his late wife, Peggy – is being constructed at the College’s main entrance. The 104,000-square-foot facility is expected to be completed in the summer of 2006.