It’s always good to return to the San Francisco Bay Area where so many friends now live: friends from my alma mater, the University of Santa Clara, friends from UCB (where I furthered my studies) and friends from my junior-year-abroad-in-Rome group. My first cooking class in the Bay area – on February 13th in Belmont – connected me with yet another very special “old friend”: Katie, who was one of my star pupils in an extraordinary class of forty children when I taught second grade in Belmont in 1971! Her mother, Anne, hosted the cooking event in Belmont – as a benefit event for the St. Francis center – and Katie flew in from Chicago as a suprise bringing along her daughter Kelly (age 13). Kelly wrote me this message after our cooking class: “Thank you so much for the great experiences you taught me. I was so glad to meet my Mom’s 2nd grade teacher. I hope to visit Italy soon!”
..and Katie herself wrote: “It was great seeing you again and great cooking with you. I think the last time we cooked together was in spring 1972 when we cooked the Passover dinner together at your house for our 2nd grade class….” I taught Katie at Belmont’s Immaculate Heart School, a Catholic school, and my second-graders loved learning about Passover and then sharing a Passover meal.
About twenty women participated in this Belmont cooking class and three were mothers of my former second-graders. As we diced and sliced, chopped and mixed, and then shared our “feast”, we chatted about my past students and the many changes in the Belmont area since I last lived there.
Hostess of the event was Nada, a lovely Croatian woman, who opened her home and heart to all of us. Mille grazie to Nada and Anne and to all our wonderful “gruppo.” I will look forward to seeing you all again in 2011 in Belmont for our next benefit event for the St. Francis Center.
“The St. Francis Center of Redwood City is a nonprofit organization helping families in need to live in dignity and become self-supporting members of the community”.
Ciao Annie, your lecture and cooking tour of the US sounded splendid in every way. I am certain that your old and newer friends were as happy as Tom and I were to visit with you while you were in the Bay Area. We always laugh alot, don’t we? The day we met you, our guide in Assisi, was a memorable day for us. We never dreamed the day would turn into a decades long friendship. Lucky us.
Annie, Tom and I and the thousands of impoverished children and women we serve around want to thank you for the incredible part you are in helping them with food and education. Dear girl, your heart is as big as the world. Come back pronto! Karen and Tom Kotoske