Alexandra Grigorieva 's report:

A very happy New Year to you and all the members of the comit t ee! I just want to say  THANK YOU!!!!!! for the wonderful time of gastronomic research I had in Italy thanks to the 2004 award - a wonderful voyage and plenty of discoveries such as pig's blood custard (Calabria's speciality), eggplants with chocolate sauce (Campania) and so on. This is my plan for broadcastingthe results in 2005 :

1. writing a series of articles on regional Italian cookery in Chef magazine (professional edition for Russian cooks)
2 . delivering a paper on a u thenticity in describing regional cuisine and Ada Boni's book at 2005 Oxford Food Symposium (at least if I find the funds for the trip or perhaps I'll offer an article on the same theme to Petits Propos Culinaires )
3. and finally preparing the materials for the Russian book on regional Italian cooking and regional Italian wines  (I'll be writing the cooking part) - thanks to the award I've landed a modest but nonetheless precious - for - me contract with a future publisher!

Of course the Geoffrey Roberts Award will be mentioned every time and I will still continue working on my Latin culinary dictionary .

T here are also some new exciting opportunities surfacing at the moment but
as they are as yet unsure I won't mention them now .

I'll send in some press cuttings as soon as I have them .

All the best ,
yours forever grateful ,
Alexandra Grigorieva