Portland Chef Cathy Whims on the secrets to cooking in Italy, being tutored by the legendary Marcella Hazan, and helping turn Portland, Oregon into a culinary force

Culinary Characters Unlocked

Chef Cathy Whims was at the forefront of the culinary revolution in Portland, Oregon and decades later she retains that position there. Her Nostrana Italian restaurant continues to dish up the kind of regional cooking truly enjoyed in the small towns and villages of Italy, bolstered by great Oregon ingredients, and her pizza is listed among America’s fifty best. She reminisces about truly discovering Italian cooking on her first visit there, and about being taught by Marcella Hazan who, after dining at Whims’s first Portland restaurant, invited the chef to study with her in Venice. Whims now owns multiple restaurants in Portland and recently released her first cookbook.

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