Maria Rosa Martelli Brekke Cibo e Amici Fund
/“Parla poco, ascolta assai e giammai non fallirai”
Portland’s thriving Italian-American community, PBSCA included, owes a debt of gratitude to this inimitable woman, who was born in Bologna and made Portland her home. Known as “La Donna di Bologna”, her warm smile and talent as a home chef helped so many of us to feel connected to each other and to the world around us through her food and her love of Italian culture. A longtime supporter of PBSCA, Maria Rosa passed away a few months ago, leaving behind a long legacy of forging lasting friendships over beautiful Italian meals.
Maria Rosa Martelli Brekke
In her honor and thanks to a generous seed gift, the Maria Rosa Martelli Brekke Cibo e Amici Fund was launched earlier this year. With this fund, PBSCA is committed to creating a series of educational events to help us better understand and celebrate the power of Italy’s food culture, specifically that of the Emilia Romagna region, to bring us closer together.
We kicked off in April with our first Virtual Taste of Bologna event featuring Chef Giorgia Lambertini, and we hope you can join us on June 8 for our Amici dinner.
If you’re curious to know more about Maria Rosa’s incredible life and what she means for the Italian community in Portland, we invite you to read an interview we published in 2006 in one of our newsletters
And if you want to contribute to making this fund grow faster, which eventually will help PBSCA to create more events tailored to the variegated Italian community in Portland, you can click on the button below (please also send us an email to let us know that we should direct this)