I was born in 1981 and raised on my 7th generation family ranch in Boerne, TX. After high-school I hitch-hiked across the United States, alternatively loving and hating its foods, cultures and contradictions. From California to Vermont, Santa Fe to Philadelphia I have worked as a ranch hand, waitress, flower shop attendant, graphic designer, cook, brick-layer, videographer, gardener, and for an ONG. My true passion, however, has always been in the kitchen. I moved to Milan in 2004 and fell head-first into Italian culture, cuisine, and lifestyle. Here, my passion for the refined semplicity of Italian cuisine brought me to more deeply appreciate my own American culinary roots. I started my first cooking blog that year, to keep in touch with friends and family back home through virtual dinner parties. I married my Italian (photographer Emilio Scoti) in 2006 and begin writing cookbooks in order to respond to his (and everyone else’s) incessant jokes about American cuisine. I continue live and work out of my home base in Milan, and hold cooking lessons and creative workshops in all of Italy.