Nell Valenti sits down for a Q&A with dru’s book musings responding to twenty or more questions so that we can learn more about her. So, let’s get to know Nell.

What is your full name?
Ornella Mae Valenti, but please don’t let it get around. I’m just Nell.

How old are you?
With mixed feelings, I turn 30 during this new mystery!

What is your profession?
Now I’m a cooking school designer, and I’m still working on the design at the Villa Orlandini in Tuscany, but I trained as a professional chef

Do you have a significant other?
A little early to say — we’ll see where it goes during this new murder investigation — but we have been exchanging glances and recipes — hey, it’s a start!

What is their name and profession?
Pete Orlandini, my employer’s forty-year old son, who owns the olive grove on the villa property

Do you have any children?
No — someday, maybe?

Do you have any siblings?
No, which, considering my difficult parents, lets any other potential offspring — except me — off the hook

Are your parents nearby?
Thankfully, no. A month ago, I put the Atlantic between us and it appears to be working.

Who is your best friend?
It’s funny, but I kind of think Annamaria Bari, the sixty-year old sous chef here at the villa, is my best friend. Neither of us is very fluent in the other’s language, but somehow that doesn’t get in the way. And then, of course, there’s Pete.

Do you have any pets?
Not just now because I move around so much. But when I’m settled, I would love to have a blue cat. They’re smart and affectionate and goofy.

What town do you live in?
Right now, I live at the villa, just outside Cortona, Italy, in the Tuscan hillside. Before taking the job, I was living in Weehawken, NJ. In my line of work, though, I bounce around.

Do you live in a small town or a big city?
I’ve lived in both, and other places in between. Cortona is what I’d call a small city, and I like that.

Type of dwelling and do you own or rent?
Five hundred years ago, the villa was a convent, and while I design the Orlandini cooking school, aside from my generous salary, I get to live in what used to be the Abbess’s Room, large, lovely, private — with its own bathroom! Heaven!

What is your favorite spot in your home?
It depends on the home. If there’s a fireplace or wood stove, that’s my favorite, with a book in my hand. If no fireplace, I like a lot of light, so a cozy armchair in any room with large windows.

Favorite meal and dessert?
Ironic, considering I’m a professional chef, but I like simple cooking, a lovely wasabi Verlasso salmon filet, or a thick, medium rare strip steak topped with fresh garlic. Desserts?
I don’t have much of a sweet tooth, but I do like custards, so here in Italy, panna cotta is my favorite.

Do you have any hobbies?
I guess, when I have the time (since my career is practically 24/7), you could say my hobby is taking oddball classes. Clogging, glass blowing, crewel, fife, marquetry. They’re like appetizers for me, not long-term commitments. I like just to have a “taste.”

What is your favorite vacation spot?
Anywhere I can toast the sun daily as it dips below a watery horizon.

What music do you listen to?
My favorite is jazz singer Sarah Vaughan

Do you have a favorite book?
Well, it would have to be P.D. James’s A Taste For Death. Or maybe P.G. Wodehouse’s Joy In The Morning.

What is your idea of a really fun time?
A great cooking class! I like to experience lots of different ethnic cuisines.

If you were to write a memoir, what would you call it?
AND OTHERS. When I’ve written cooking pieces for magazines, famous other contributors get a byline and I’m included in AND OTHERS. Always makes me laugh, and keeps me humble.

Amateur or professional sleuth and whom do you work with?
Oh, amateur. I can’t help diving into a murder investigation. I like chasing down clues and doing the Poirot “little gray cells” routine and figuring out the crime. But I’m grateful NOT to have the added stress of being a professional detective, answerable constantly to higher-ups. Also, guns give me the willies.

In a few sentences, what is a typical day in your life like?
When we have a four-day workshop at the Villa Orlandini Cooking School under way with American foodies, I pretty much hit the ground running. Coffee and scone in my office, early, while I review the day’s schedule — when are we in the kitchen cooking, when are we in the classroom learning, when are we on a field trip foraging, when are we on breaks in town in order to experience the fabulous piazza life of Cortona — and in between those times I field questions from the “students,” go over the menus with Chef and Annamaria, deal with commercial kitchen contractors as needed, and long to chill out with wine and bruschetta with Pete in his cottage.

Crime of the Ancient Marinara by Stephanie Cole, Tuscan Cooking School Mystery #2
Genre: Culinary Cozy
Release: January 2021
Purchase Link

Nell Valenti is settling into her role of transforming the Villa Orlandini into a superb farm-to-table cooking school, and the time has finally come for a full taste test run. But when Chef Orlandini prepares to reveal his top secret marinara recipe for the first time to a group of American gastro-tourists, Nell realizes she might have bitten off more than she can chew.

Nell begins to suspect that one of the tourists is actually a private detective sent to spy on her by her overprotective father, and the fussy foodies are noisy and disrespectful from the very start of the Marinara Mysteriosa workshop. Even worse, when one visitor appears to be poisoned by the famous marinara recipe, Nell will have to work fast to uncover a killer and keep a lid on bad press before her fresh start is spoiled for good.

About the author
Shelley Costa’s work has been nominated for the Edgar and Agatha Awards. Writing as Stephanie Cole, she has a new Tuscany-set mystery, Al Dente’s Inferno (Berkley), that debuted in February. The next in the series, Crime of the Ancient Marinara, comes out in January 2021. She is the author of You Cannoli Die Once, Basil Instinct, Practical Sins for Cold Climates, A Killer’s Guide to Good Works, several stories in AHMM, Blood on Their Hands, and The World’s Finest Mystery and Crime Stories.

All comments are welcomed.