Shows
The Big Four Oh: The Podcast About Turning 40Turning 40 and turning pasta into a paycheckAt age 39, Francesca Montillo had a thriving healthcare career at a prestigious Boston hospital—but her heart was in Italy, dreaming of pasta, wine, and sun-soaked adventures. In this episode, she shares how she slowly and strategically built a food and travel business on the side, eventually trading her secure 9-to-5 for a life she once thought was too good to be true. From pandemic pivots to cultural expectations and midlife realizations, Francesca’s story is a masterclass in following your gut, even when it takes 20 years to listen. If you’ve ever wondered what might be waiting on the ot...2025-04-1045 min
goodtaste for the SoulThe Lazy Italian! Goodtaste for the Soul E15 w/ Francesca MontilloIf you had a chance to visit Italy, would you take it? If so, you’ll love knowing about The Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures. Its founder is an Italian born American who is living the dream of sharing her beautiful country with all of us. Francesca Montillo started a side hustle of writing a thoughtful, colorful newsletter about Italy, complete with cultural insights, history and mouthwatering recipes. That side hustle is now a full time business. One of her enticing newsletters ended up in my inbox—that was several years ago, and I’ve had the pleasure of working with Fran...2025-03-2426 min
Second Act Success Podcast: Career Transitions, Entrepreneurship, and Business Advice for WomenFrom The Office to Italy: How Francesca Montillo Created Her Dream Career | Ep #185Have you ever dreamed of leaving your corporate job to follow your creative passion? In this episode of Second Act Success, Shannon Russell sits down with Francesca Montillo, founder of Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures. Francesca shares her incredible journey from a stable career in healthcare management to building a thriving business centered around Italian food, wine, and travel.Born in Italy and raised in Boston, Francesca always had a love for Italian culture and cuisine. But it wasn’t until she was on the verge of turning 40 that she decided to take the leap and reinvent her ca...2025-03-1127 min
Bold Like Her PodcastLazy Italian Culinary Adventures with Francesca Montillo Francesca Montillo is the founder, Chief Travel Planner and Escort at Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures. She's a native Italian and I loves helping others see, taste, and experience all the flavors of Italy. Her business came about in 2016. At the time, she was everyone's go-to person when it came to traveling to Italy - answering all sorts of questions. She loved sharing info on her heritage, cooking Italian food, traveling to Italy and what they should see or miss. It came pretty natural to her. In 2016, on the verge of turning 40, she decided it was t...2025-03-0423 min
Demystifying MoneyEpisode 85 - Turning What You Love Into a BusinessIn this episode, Misty discusses moving into the new year with intention around your financial goals. She is joined by Francesca Montillo, owner of Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures to discuss how she created her dream job of running a culinary travel business while working full-time.2023-01-1633 min
Liz on Biz® with Liz TheresaE123 – Francesca Montillo – Doing (and Eating) What You LoveFrancesca Montillo is the owner and founder of Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures (thelazyitalian.com). In her business, Francesca offers cooking classes and curated adventures to Italy – creating a taste experience like no other. She’s also the author of a brand new book you need, called the Five Ingredient Italian – where each recipe calls for 5 … Continued2019-03-1129 min
The Bittersweet LifeFOOD (with Francesca Montillo)Have you ever thumbed through a cookbook only to roll your eyes and wonder, who has the time? And who has all these ingredients laying around? Italian food expert and cookbook author Francesca Montillo joins us for a conversation about her new cookbook. For anyone who loves cooking Italian food but doesn’t have the time or the inclination to concoct elaborate meals, The 5-Ingredient Italian Cookbook takes authentic regional Italian recipes and ever-so-slightly simplifies them to make them accessible to busy cooks. We chat with Francesca about the differences between northern and southern Italian cuisine, why It...2019-02-1833 min
Thoughts on the TableIntroducing Francesca Montillo's New Paperback - The 5-ingredient Italian CookbookFrancesca introduces The 5-ingredient Italian Cookbook, a collection of 101 regional classics which stems from her experience as a cooking instructor. During the episode, Francesca shares a behind-the-scenes on the making of the book, from the choice of the recipes to the use of a test kitchen to validate them and photograph the resulting dishes.2019-02-1020 min
Biz Women RockLIVE COACHING: I Want to Leave My Full Time Job and Make My Travel Business Work with Francesca MontilloFrancesca Montillo is the founder of Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures. She provides cooking classes, easy to make Italian recipes and guided culinary tours around her homeland of Italy. Like many entrepreneurs, she’s still working a full time job and wants to turn her side hustle into a full time business that can provide for her! During this LIVE COACHING SESSION, Francesca and I dive into what her true goals are in the next phase of her business (and how that will get her closer to doing it full time) and back in...2018-02-1935 min
Biz Women RockLIVE COACHING: I Want to Leave My Full Time Job and Make My Travel Business Work with Francesca MontilloFrancesca Montillo is the founder of Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures. She provides cooking classes, easy to make Italian recipes and guided culinary tours around her homeland of Italy.
Like many entrepreneurs, she’s still working a full time job and wants to turn her side hustle into a full time business that can provide for her!2018-02-1935 min
The Bittersweet LifeCOOKING, Part 2 (with Francesca Montillo)The cooking discussion continues. Katy and Tiffany discuss their own cooking habits in response to last week's episode with Francesca Montillo of Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures. What happens when Italians express love through food, but you don't like to cook? Tiffany tackles that, and makes a great joke about being a mom. Get cooking using Francesca's Recipe for Chicken Santimbocca Ingredients ½ Cup All-Purpose Flour 4 Thin Chicken Breast Cutlets Salt to Taste 8 Large Sage Leaves 4 Thin Slices Prosciutto 3 Tablespoons Olive Oil 4 Tablespoons Bu...2017-03-2934 min
The Bittersweet LifeEpisode 152: COOKING Part 2The cooking discussion continues. Katy and Tiffany discuss their own cooking habits in response to last week's episode with Francesca Montillo of Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures. What happens when Italians express love through food, but you don't like to cook? Tiffany tackles that, and makes a great joke about being a mom. Francesca Montillo's Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures: http://www.thelazyitalian.com/ New to the show? Come along for the whole journey by starting with Episode One: OUTSET. DONATE: If you love the show, please help pay for it. Your donation keeps the show alive! Visit...2017-03-2700 min
The Bittersweet LifeCOOKING, Part 1 (with Francesca Montillo)Italian expat and cooking expert, Francesca Montillo, inspires us to cook and eat with others daily. She also explains what it is like to grow up in small-town Italy, and move permanently to the United States. NEVER HEARD THE SHOW? Don't be afraid to start with Episode 1:OUTSET SPONSOR: Reach thousands of expats and travelers all over the world by sponsoring The Bittersweet Life. Write the at bittersweetlife@mail.com to get the conversation going. JOIN THE CONVERSATION Connect with us on Twitter, Facebook or write us @ bittersweetlife@mail.com....2017-03-2031 min
Women InspiredEpisode 4: Creating great experiences for your clients and customers with Francesca MontilloIn this episode, you will hear Francesca Montillo talk about the kinds of challenges she has faced in the first year of running her business – Lazy Italian Culinary Adventures – and how she manages to deal with them while still working full time in her corporate job. She describes her childhood in Italy and her philosophy of food, travel and company that makes her business uniquely her own. Full show notes2017-02-2429 minThoughts on the TableIntroducing Cooking Instructor Francesca MontilloIn this feature, Francesca talks about her unique upbringings, with her family straddling between Boston and a small village in southern Italy, and between adopting new traditions and maintaining their old ones, while living abroad. In the second part of the episode, Francesca describes how she made professional use of her Italian background both by teaching Italian cooking classes and by organizing and conducting culinary tours of Italy.2016-12-0324 min