It’s that time of year when Bostonians can see chef Jody Adams cruising around town on her red Brompton folding motorcycle to join her empire of seven (soon to be eight) domain restaurants. The two-time James Beard Award winner says it’s a wonderful way to get around Boston’s infamous traffic and even make new friends.
“Having a folding motorcycle is like having a puppy,” the chef told me in an email. “Everybody needs to communicate about it and touch it. “
It’s a busy circuit for the chef, who is culinary director of A Street Hospitality, which operates five quiet Greek institutions in Thessaloniki, as well as exclusive Trade and Porto institutions, all spread across Boston and Cambridge. His new restaurant, La Padrona, is in Back Bay in Raffles Boston, right in the middle of this tour, and is indeed encouraged by one of the chef’s other passions: biking adventures in Italy. The long-awaited venue will feature regional classics from across Italy, performed using ingredients sourced from Italy and New England.
La Padrona will open its doors in May, and just a month later, the chef will hop on his motorcycle in Italy for a seven-day culinary motorcycle tour of Piedmont with active specialist Tourissimo. This trip, from June 23 to 29, 2024, will take visitors to the center of the Langa and Roero regions, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2014 and considered one of the most important wine-growing areas in Italy.
The hills of Italy will be a welcome challenge for Adams, an avid cyclist who enjoys long rides on her traditional SEVEN Axion, pedaling south of Dorchester in the Blue Hills or west of Boston in the agricultural spaces of Lexington, Concord, Carlisle, Acton. , Littleton and Harvard, covering circuits from 30 to 90 miles. I ride my bike because I love it,” says the chef. I feel like an invincible child when I go down the hills at 40 km/h singing!Sure, I feel a little older when I crank them up to 8 miles per hour, however, the positive result is more powerful legs and lungs.
All of this makes for wonderful education for the month of August, when Adams will take on his 14th annual Pan Mass Challenge: a two-day motorcycle ride to raise funds for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute that runs 186 miles from Sturbridge to Provincetown. “Having the CCP as an annual goal helps me keep going throughout the year,” says the chef, who has raised more than $250,000 for the fight against cancer over the years. “My husband calls me a beast, in the best way possible. . I’m thankful I have the legs to step on the pedals of the motorcycle that raise money for the cure of cancer.
Holidays with Tourissimo, which include plenty of wine and cheese and hotels with a UNESCO World Heritage Site, a family-owned vineyard with a royal afterlife and a boutique hotel in the countryside, will be a far cry from the grueling Pan Mass Challenge. “I was given the lucky golden ticket when I discovered culinary motorcycle vacations,” Adams says. “I’m addicted to them and I’ve been doing one a year for about fifteen years, with a few years off because of COVID. During this time, Adams visited culinary gems such as Sicily, Umbria, and Emilia-Romagna in Italy, as well as locations in France and Spain. “It’s fun to be in a group,” he says. I made lasting friends on that vacation. “
The chef has a particular affinity with Tourissimo, and specifies that she has made several trips with the organization. Co-founders Heather Dowd and Beppe Salerno “have a lot of friends in the Italian food and wine world,” he says. “Beppe and Heather create journeys filled with hidden gems, captivating towns, and delicious treats with those friends. And they make sure we revel in the history and culture of the domain through sumptuous downtime at our hotels.
For Piedmont, Adams will cycle along the stopovers and play a key role in understanding the region’s cuisine and wine, and will also spearhead a special stopover at Pollenzo, the University of Gastronomic Sciences presented through the Slow Food Association. The organization will explore how the region fuses influences from northern Italy and France, with pies and mushrooms midway through the season’s highlights, and receive information on Piedmontese specialties such as tajarin (a new type of pasta) and bagna cauda (a mild sauce made from anchovies, olive oil, and garlic), as well as local dishes more familiar to Americans, such as risotto and agnolotti (ravioli stuffed with a tasty combination of meat and vegetables).
“[Bike tours are] the most productive way to enjoy a field and meet people,” Adams says. “You see the world from the back roads, you avoid picking figs from a tree, you watch olives being harvested, an early morning fish market and eat freshly hulled mussels, sipping wine at 10 a. m. M. , dive into a porchetta sandwich from a truck. At the open-air market it sounds absolutely magical.
Does following Chef Adams seem intimidating? Don’t worry: if you’re not prepared to cycle an average of 20 to 25 miles over endless vineyard-covered hills, past ancient castles and villages tucked away in the lowest part of a hill, electric motorcycles (pedal assist system) are also available.
Tourissimo’s six-night motorcycle tour of Piedmont’s wine region costs $7,295, with a $695 surcharge.
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