“Sometimes people are surprised to hear that I’m a duchess, but I tell them that modern duchesses don’t have time to sit around painting their nails. My husband Duke Gioacchino Tomasi di Lampedusa has inherited the 18th-century palazzo of his adopted father and Italy’s most famed writer, Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa—author of ‘Il Gattopardo’ [‘The Leopard’]. We must do all we can to maintain it and to keep his memory alive. The cooking workshops I run here are a part of that. “I’ve always loved food as a very important cultural aspect of a country. Through food and the cuisine of a country, you understand its history and its culture. It’s exactly what I want to do in my cooking classes. “I enjoy learning about the history of a dish. For example, this gelo di mellone I am cooking for you today would not exist were it not for the …