“When I was younger I wanted to be a singer and actress. I went to live New York for a while trying to pursue that career, but it wasn’t making me happy. I started to realize that it wasn’t my passion. I enrolled at The French Culinary Institute (now called The International Culinary Center). The school opened up my mind and refined my palate. It allowed me to meet some of our industry’s greatest chefs – inspiring me to venture into this world on my own. I worked as a personal chef for a while, until one day we decided to plan a months long trip through Italy. A few week into our trip, I was diagnosed with cancer, everything turned upside down. Due to my Italian citizenship, I elected to stay in Italy to receive care and eventually it became my permanent home.

We chose to settle in Bologna, obviously because of the food. I became fascinated with pasta – different shapes, different techniques – I wanted to learn as much as I could. I found that most translations from Italian to English had words changed and ingredients replaced. From this I started translating traditional Italian recipes into English, rewriting them exactly as they are, as they were meant to be.”