An interview with Alice Adams Carosi: The Australian cook behind Rome's Latteria Studio

And links to recipes and Rome/Lazio travel tips

Alice and I go back many years now, I think of her as my big sister from Melbourne, who lives a parallel life to me but in Rome rather than Tuscany. She is a food stylist, a wonderful cook and writer. She forages oranges off the Roman streets for her neighbourhood orange project, and created my dream cooking space, Latteria Studio (it was very much an inspiration for building my own space at Enoteca Marilu), where, together with Rachel Roddy and Carla Tomasi, two of my food idols, they run their wonderful Rome Market to Table cooking classes.

During the pandemic Alice was forced out of her old studio and has rebuilt it, bigger and better than ever. She also rents her studio out for food photography shoots. You may very well have seen her plates and props (and that Roman light) in some of the books on your shelves. In fact, we borrowed some of her props for two of my cookbook shoots (Acquacotta and Tortellini at Midnight) and Alice even helped me on those shoots too.

Alice is also a person whose values I have always admired. She cares deeply about sustainability (she once gave me an apron she made herself from off cuts) and is thoughtful about everything she does (see that neighbourhood orange project above).

“Travel, freelancing, and moving around is a privilege and not an option for many women.  I acknowledge this, and am committed to trying to create positive outcomes on a social and environmental level in my kitchen and through my business,” she writes.

I’m really happy that she agreed to a little interview here (joining other foreign women I admire who have also moved to and made a life in Italy, Henna Garrison and Zoe Shapiro). The photos of Alice in her new Latteria studio are by another Rome based foreign woman I adore,

Saghar Setareh

and the others are ones I’ve taken over the years of Alice’s food and her old studio.

ED: Tell us about how you came to Rome and what made you stay?

My first trip to Rome was in September 2003.  I was with my brother and was very impressed that he spoke Italian.  We had actually all learnt Italian at primary school, but he had taken it up again as an adult and it made me want to start studying.  I also completely fell for Rome, it was the end of summer and the golden light in the streets, the peace flags fluttering from the window sills in Trastevere, the outdoor concert in front of the Colosseum we found ourselves at.  I had never been in a city that felt so alive.

I went straight off to language classes at the Istituto di Cultura Italiana in Domain road as soon as I got back to Melbourne.  Then, when I sold the small catering business I had with a friend in St Kilda, and knew I could pay rent in Rome for a year, I booked my ticket, and arrived in April 2005.

I took Italian classes at the Dante Alighieri school in Piazza Bologna for a month, which was the perfect way to start my year, and where I met Rachel.  After language school I was determined to find a job so that I would keep learning.  I found a job as a waitress on Via Goffredo Mameli in Trastevere and literally the rest is history.  I met Leonardo in the bar next door to the restaurant.  But as I often say to people, would I have stayed had I not met Leo?  Quite possibly, so taken as I was with Rome.

ED: How then did you get into food styling (which I think is still an uncommon job in Italy) and cooking?

While I was still at university I got a waitressing job where they were short of people in the kitchen and so I was taken off the floor to make the salads and desserts.  After university I was so crazy about skiing that I went to do a ski season at Falls Creek where I worked with lots of really great chefs and food people including Micheal Ryan and Liz Cinatl.  I then went off to do a ski season in France and I ended up with a job as a Chalet girl.  It was only a part time job, some weeks on, others off, but the company gave me good budgets and I had such a good time cooking for my clients.  I winged just about everything but mum faxed [!!] me copies of all of her cake and dessert recipes.  I still have photocopies of those original faxes in my old recipe folder.

Once I got back to Australia I set up a small catering business in Falls Creek based on the same model of catering for people in their chalets and ski lodges.  Through clients in Falls Creek I was invited to Sydney to work on a big corporate catering boat on the harbour.  Don't picture a younger me in white shorts with tanned legs, I was in a small galley kitchen cooking glazed hams and poached ocean trout, looking decidedly unglamourous but learning a lot.  After a while I was completely sick of hospitality hours and I took a job in account management with a graphic design firm.  I moved back to Melbourne to work for another design agency, this one with mainly food clients.  My boss, who was actually a misogynist bastard, used to tell me I should be a food stylist while I prepped my lunch salads in the staff kitchen.  I didn't last that long (see above) and I was completely disheartened by the world of fast moving consumer goods, and I missed cooking.  So I took a job with one of the really big and very impressive Melbourne catering companies.  This led to me doing some private catering by request and I moved into a fantastic commercial kitchen behind a flower shop at the corner of Acland street and Barkley street in St Kilda. 

About the same time, the very talented photographer Robyn Lea asked me if I wanted to come and help her out with the styling for a photo story about the Milawa Cheese Factory.  So, that was the beginning of my food styling story.  I went on to work on occasional jobs with Robyn and her art director sister Julia.  At the same time I also met the wonderful Debbie Kaloper [Deb is also my friend and the amazing food stylist who I’ve worked with on three of my books, a small world!] through Pause bar on Carlisle street.

When I moved to Rome I didn't consider cooking because I didn't feel I spoke the language well enough.  From my first job as a waitress I started teaching English and doing translations, I actually loved teaching English, my degree was in Literature and Fine Arts, but the structure of the available jobs and the conditions were so unattractive.  After Alberto and Emma were born (2008, 2010) I decided I wanted to go back to working in food full time, and food styling seemed like a good place to insert myself into the culinary landscape in Rome.  Quite a few people discouraged me, because most of the photography and media work in Italy is in Milan, but I started slowly and gradually started working with food photographers in Rome and beyond. 

I am more of a cook than a food stylist, but I do love collecting all the things that make a photograph, the ceramics, the linen [here’s a shot I took of the old Latteria Studio way back], the cooking utensils.  In a way I am just a cook, who brings nice plates along with her to the job, and while I now only do selected book projects, working as a home economist and stylist has been a fabulous part of my journey.

ED: What are your favourite cookbooks or your main influences when it comes to food?

My main influence in the kitchen will always be my mum.  She was so dedicated to buying good fresh food from her beloved Camberwell market when we were young, and was really concerned about how the food presented at the supermarkets was undermining healthy eating habits.  She made almost everything from scratch, she even started baking bread because she was so disillusioned by the bread available in early eighties Melbourne.  All my school friends still remember the beautiful little homemade rolls I had in my lunch box.

When I started cooking for myself I absolutely loved Jill Dupleix's New Food and Greg Malouf's Moorish, they are still two of my most well-loved cook books.  And of course Stephanie Alexander's The Cook's Companion which I stupidly gave to a cousin when I moved to Italy.  A gorgeous Market to Table guest was so distressed by this that she sent me a copy. Probably my most thumbed Italian cookbooks are the Slow Food Editore series of which I have lots of, on Vegetables, Fish, regional specialties.  

See Alice’s mum’s sourcream spiced cake recipe here.

ED: How was Latteria Studio born? — I think opening your own studio is such a daunting and brave thing to do, especially as a foreigner. And it’s not that easy to keep it afloat! How did it happen?

In 2015 I was working quite a bit with food photographer Marie Sjoberg and we longed to have a space to cook and shoot and store props and equipment.  I was working from home and I really longed to have a work space, and I knew that having a space would open lots of new doors.  The food writing and food tourism space was very crowded at that time, with some very talented people like Rachel and Katie Parla and having a space was a way of being able to broaden my horizons. 

I found this old milk bar on Via di Ponziano at the south end of Trastevere and Marie was keen for the venture, so we signed the lease and started knocking the place into shape.  As I had hoped, it did open a lot of doors.  Through Rachel and instagram I met Carla Tomasi, and she asked my if she could join my Christmas pop-up sale.  Not long after Carla, Rachel and I sat around Carla's kitchen table with cups of tea, and we came up with the idea for our Market to Table classes. I really love teaching and being in class environments, and Market to Table has opened another set of doors, into teaching University groups and recently Italian school kids with Slow Food.

ED: What does an average day look like at Latteria Studio now?

Every day is different, but I might be there testing a recipe on my own, or working on the computer which I love as I have this beautiful calm and silence.  If I need to go to the market I go across the San Giovanni di Dio, and if I want a coffee or to stretch my legs I go down to the bar on the park where we meet our groups before Market to Table, or to one of the other bars nearby.  If there is a class on the next day there are lots of things to get ready including tidying up and putting out fresh tea towels and aprons, checking ingredients and weighing out some of the quantities. 

Amazingly I now I have a studio co-ordinator called Gaia who helps with some of the admin and lesson coordination for the studio, as well as teaching classes with us.  She has a magic touch with the maritozzi and so she might come in to help set up for a class and make the mini maritozzi.

ED: What does 2024 look like for you, and are there any fun projects you are looking forward to?

I am really hoping that 2024 will be full, but not crazy.  I am really happy to have Gaia and a great group of other young cooks collaborating with me, so that we can share the teaching and other activities.  At the moment I am working on an exciting personal project, and after this is finished I want to spend some time working on setting up a Community Kitchen in one of the Rome markets.

ED: What are your favourite things to cook lately?

1. Cicoria, I finally decided the kids are old enough for cicoria, and they are eating it, and Leo is so happy.

2.  Marmalade, after a bit of a hiatus, I am back at the marmalade making with the bitter oranges of Rome.  

ED: Can you share your go to markets or a must eat in Rome?

For food shopping my Rome tip is this - stay in the suburbs and out of the centre.  I have a longer list on the travel page of my website but my favourite markets are Piazza San Giovanni di Dio, Via Niccolini and Mercato Trieste on Via Chiana.  In terms of eating out, here are a few places I have eaten at recently that are slightly off the tourist radar and really good.  Menabò Vino e Cucina in Centocelle (innovative tradition), and Antico Falcone in Prati (classic cucina Romana).

See also Alice’s post on where to go treasure hunting in Rome here.

ED: Where do you go when you need a bit of a break from Rome?

We have a little house with a garden in a town called Lubriano [below] in alto Lazio.  Unfortunately, life with two busy teenagers (one that has school on a saturday) means that we don't get there very often.  It takes about 10 minutes for me to completely relax into Lubriano time whenever we are there, and there are these views out over the valley from the kitchen, the garden, from all these little points along the main street. I look forward to more time there once the teens are older!

See Alice’s post here on traveling around the vineyards of Alto Lazio.

I hope you’ve enjoyed reading this insight into Alice’s journey and her classes in Rome (thank you Alice!). She’s your go-to for cooking classes in Rome, markets in Rome and the Tuscia area of Alto Lazio. You can find her on instagram at @alice.adamscarosi and her website here.

You might also like these:

• A visit of Grottaglie, a ceramic lovers dream in Puglia, and interview with Alice Adams

• Alice’s scones with jam and cream

• Alice’s lombrichielli pasta with zucchini

• Alice’s fennel and caramelised onion quiche [Alice’s tarts and crostate are *chefs kiss*]