A Little Bit of Backstory

Our Italian father, Franco, and Scottish mother Fiona met at work in a hotel on the island of Jersey in the early 1960's. They moved to live in Scotland. We (Andrew, Iain, Colin and Niall) were lucky to have been brought up with Italian food at a time when most Scots only knew spaghetti from a tin. But it was only after spending time in northern Italy that we appreciated the difference between the food culture in Italy and Scotland at that time.

Meal times with Zio Pierro and Zia Elena in the old terraced pan tiled house on the edge of the village of San Giovanni in Croce in the Po Valley were far more regimented than the mostly, eat-when-you-feel-hungry routine we were used to. Our parents ran a pub in Kinross and one thing that did not involve was a Monday to Friday, 9-5 routine. But in Italy, La pranzo (lunch) was at 12.30, La cena (dinner) at 8.30. Period!

Other than on Sundays when more elaborate and extravagant dishes were prepared (a bit like Christmas here), meals, especially lunch were pasta and sauce (sugo) or pasta in a soup, (minestra). Always with bread. The simplicity of this was both delicious and moresome...!

"The first tomato from Pierro's small, packed vegetable garden was incomparable to anything I'd ever tasted; refreshing, bright red bursting with sunshine and unbelievably sweet. With a little olive oil and salt the taste was spoiled by anything else" (Andrew)

Food is at the foundation of the Italian attitude to life, and "benessere" (well being). Preparing food for others is deeply ingrained in Italian culture. It's a demonstration of love, sharing and hospitality.

(that there's also the mosquitoes and beaurocracy..."ma che cosa fai!")