On a Tuesday morning, in the kitchen of the Woman’s Clubhouse on Haverford, ten members of the Pacific Palisades Woman’s Club observe the man managing the cauldrons on the stove: a jovial, easy-going man with a Sicilian accent, wearing a goatee, a lone silver earring, and an apron over his black-stripe dress shirt. Chef Guiseppe Barravecchia is one of the partners of locally owned Pinocchio’s In Cucina on Monument at Sunset Blvd. With the help of the Italian deli’s assistant chef, Carolina Aviles, Barravecchia demonstrated how to prepare salad dressing for the arugula and blue cheese salad, two kinds of pasta”a rigatoni with eggplant and bow tie pasta with Bolognaise sauce (a beef-laden marinara)”and fresh tiramisu”all from scratch. As Woman’s Club co-president Trish Bowe explained: ‘We wanted to do something different to get more people in the community involved. This is something that’s never been done.’ ‘This’ being the ‘Romance of Italy Italian Cuisine’ luncheon. There’s always room for another first, even with an organization as venerable as the Woman’s Club, which began in 1925. And the June 9 event offered members a chance to not only serve lunch, but also create it. Following Barravecchia’s cooking demonstration, which began at 9 a.m., members helped the chef prepare the meal, which was followed by an 11 a.m. reception and the meal itself at noon, when the Club charged $15 per person to cover expenses. About 40 members and guests attended the luncheon. Organized by Bowe, ‘Romance of Italy’ was her first act as the just-sworn-in co-president. ‘She was very instrumental in putting together our ‘Coming Up Roses’ event back in March,’ co-president Jean Aroeste said. ‘She was the co-chair of that with Madeline Zaloon.’ ‘I go to Pinocchio’s all the time for lunch,’ Bowe said of ‘Romance”s genesis. ‘Every meal I’ve had has been incredible. It’s always amazing the flavors that Guiseppe marries. He does it with such panache. He’s a very colorful chef. So we were talking and I asked, ‘Would you be interested in cooking for the Woman’s Club?” The Woman’s Club certainly appreciated Chef Giuseppe’s efforts that morning. ‘He’s been very generous,’ said Bowe, who runs State Farm Insurance on Via de la Paz. ‘He knows we’re a nonprofit organization.’ ‘Romance’ represented the Club’s last monthly meeting before summer hiatus (although bridge and tai chi sessions will continue through the summer). The meetings return in October. Before Pinocchio’s, Barravecchia worked at a string of Italian eateries in West Hollywood and Beverly Hills. His immediate family still runs a restaurant, Pepito Ristorante, back in Sicily, so marinara sauce is in his blood. The soft-spoken Sicilian, prefaced by chopped cilantro and plum tomatoes, charmed the Club’s ladies as he spilled some secrets from his cucina. Among those accompanying Bowe in the kitchen was her sister, Betsy Bryan, and their mother, Katherine De Fosset, visiting from Ventura County. ‘You peel the eggplant so it doesn’t have that bitter taste,’ Bryan said. ‘Most people just cut it with the skin on.’ ‘He doesn’t fry it,’ said Alexa Csato, who owns the Peter and Alexa Hair Studio on Via de la Paz. ‘He bakes it in the oven.’ Bryan learned from Barravecchia, ‘If you use the hamburger, you don’t know what you’re getting. So just buy meat instead.’ Barravecchia had brought in a pre-made Bolognaise sauce just in case time was precious. But in the end, the pasta topping served at the luncheon was the batch which Woman’s Club members had assisted the Pinocchio’s chef with. So what did he think of the members’ contributions to the lavish Italian meal? Joked Barravecchia to his luncheon audience, ‘If I’m short on staff, I will call you.’ Over lunch, the Palisadian-Post shared a table with members Alexia Csato, Jo Keagy, Anne-Marie Rubin and Sylvia Grieb. ‘He was very kind and very patient,’ Bryan noted, merrily digging into her arugula salad with blue cheese and pecans, which was accompanied by fresh onion rolls. Among entrees, Bryan liked the eggplant entr’e. Grieb preferred the Bolognaise pasta. Minutes later, the Palisades Letter Shop owner parsed a mouthful of the tiramisu with her fork and declared, ‘It’s very delicate and very sweet.’ Marion Marshall, a Club member since 1965 and four-term past president, praised ‘Romance of Italy.’ ‘It’s the idea of everyone coming together and sharing the meal by making the meal,’ she said. ‘When you work together side by side, you bring people together.’
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