I've always wondered why it took me so long to start writing down my memories, experiences and recipes from Italy and France. Time has flown by, and only now I decided to finally embark on this journey. For many years, my focus was on my career and raising my children. But now, with my children grown and more time on my hands, I can finally return to my true passion – cooking.

 

This book is a culmination of love, learning, and experimenting in the kitchen with Italian and French recipes; done over the many years of my travels. It's about the joy of creating delicious meals that bring people together. I'm thrilled to share these recipes with you, hoping they'll inspire you to explore new flavors, ideas and make your time in the kitchen special. Welcome to my second life - let's cook up some magic together!

Cooking is the best medicine for stress, for problems and moments of doubt. Everyone has such moments, when I’m cooking my stress disappears the fastest and my smile returns. There are plenty of cookbooks available on the market, thousands of recipes on the internet, so one may ask, why another one? I love buying new cooks yet, I feel like each one lacks something. Whether that be recipes that are too complicated to prepare, have too many ingredients – which tend to be unavailable in some countries or are extremely expensive. With that, I wanted to write a cookbook that is not missing anything, incorporating all the elements I think other cookbooks tend to miss. Recipes that anyone can do, with any level of experience, or lack thereof, from anywhere in the world and in their simplest form. I wanted to write a book that would help anyone and everyone. When I cook for my friends, most of them ask me: how long does it take to cook, how difficult is it? They are used to regular cookbooks, so with mine, I wanted to change that.