LauraGiannatempo

Im a magazine editor and cookbook author. But most importantly, I love food and I love to cook. I think I can safely say that Ive been a gourmand since age four. As a kid, I ate stuff almost no kid eats. Spinach? Bring it on. Cauliflower? Yum. Brussel sprouts? Can I have more? My mother always marveled at the gusto with which I devoured all kinds of food, from braised fennel to tripe. It helped, of course, that she was a great cook and that I was born and grew up in one of the most sophisticated culinary countries in the world: Italy. Yes, I was born in Torino, in the northwestern region of Piemonte—land of white truffles and Barolo, of agnolotti del plin and hunchbacked cardoons. Ive had a deep appreciation of good food made with care from high-quality ingredients for my entire lifetime. But Id be lying if I said that I cooked a whole lot before the age of 25. Sure, I helped my mother in the kitchen from time to time; but, ironically, it was America that made me cook.

When in 1996 I moved to San Francisco, I couldnt afford to eat out every night--especially if you consider that I was a starving marketing student at UC Berkeley working the front desk at the campus Recreational and Sports Facility. So it wasnt long before I headed straight to the kitchen.

Not professionally, though. Not yet. I spent eight years in public relations for the performing arts and, later, to create awareness about the pitfalls of industrial food production and factory farming.

All the while, I cooked my way through piles of cookbooks and old family recipes. Then I decided it was time to give food and cooking a greater role in my life. I enrolled in the culinary arts program at New Yorks Institute of Culinary Education (ICE) and graduated with high honors. I worked as a catering cook at The Cleaver Company and as a line cook at the Green Table Café, both in New Yorks Chelsea Market.
But all along I knew that my love of food went beyond the confines of the professional restaurant kitchen. I wanted to experience food in all its alluring facets. I wanted to eat and drink out and be wowed by a chefs new creation; I wanted to get to know the people who make food, be they chefs, artisan cheese makers, or small farmers; I wanted to travel to explore new flavors and, with them, new cultures. And, of course, I wanted to cook. I wasnt a half bad writer, so I thought Id give food writing a try. Thats how I became an editor at Fine Cooking. And thats how I wrote my first cookbook, A Ligurian Kitchen: Recipes and Tales from the Italian Riviera.