Kitchen thoughts
My conception of food has changed over the years. Until I was 15, I was always content with what was served in the convent (as we say in Italy).
Obviously, I'm Italian and for my family, cooking has always been an important thing, unfortunately with the illness of my maternal grandmother and the death of my mother when I was 12, many of the things I used to eat as a child I would no longer be able to taste until I was able to eat them in some restaurant when I was a bit older.
At 15, I started going out with my friends, some a few years older than me, and I started having the opportunity to choose which dishes to try in the various venues.
My world gradually began to open up, especially to fast-prepared food like sandwiches, bruschetta, and pizza.
Around the age of 20, I started going out for lunch more regularly, during my work break, I started to have a need to eat something lighter: I discovered salads, main courses, and soups.
Until I was 25, before my marriage, I also had the opportunity to try different types of meat, different traditional dishes from my province and other Italian cities, especially during day trips with my future wife.
Starting from the honeymoon, a whole new world opened up for me: since I started traveling every summer with my wife, I have learned many things about cooking.
It is precisely after each individual trip that the conviction is strengthened in me that I am too fortunate to be Italian not to cook something almost every day.
I have learned many things about the combinations of flavors and ingredients in the various areas where I have been, in Asia, Africa, America, and England.
In European countries, the cuisine often varies from region to region as it does in the rest of the world, but in an enormously incisive way.