Dora

Dora is the head chef at Rocca Delle Tre Contrade, an elegant villa encircled by lemon groves, standing on a hill between the Ionian Sea and Mount Etna, where Iska spent a summer cooking with her. Dora is well under five feet tall, her perfectly fluffed hair adding an inch or two. She wears little heeled sandals while cooking and commands her kitchen with a booming, husky voice.

She serves four immaculate courses every evening for 24 adoring guests, twisting spaghetti alla vongole in a ladle and onto plates, lifting the weight of a whole suckling pig from the oven and carving like a master butcher. She measures everything by hand, seasons with abandon and tastes constantly until she is happy. She frequents the fish market in Giarre at 7 a.m., where they fear her, for she can be satisfied with only the freshest, finest fish.