cucina /kuˈtʃina/
v. he/she cooks, n. kitchen,
eg. Aldo cucina in cucina.

In 2006, I went along to a clairvoyant in North Adelaide. I was bouncing back from a hideous breakup, I had just returned from a few months travelling through Italy and Malta where I’d spent all my money and was back in Adelaide living in my parents’ spare room. Surely a clairvoyant could see things turning around in my future…! Love was on the horizon, she said. But don’t they all say that? She described him to me, “He’s here, in Adelaide, some sort of Italian or European background, tall, dark features…” Tall, dark and handsome? Another clairvoyant cliche…

Fast forward 12 months: my tall, dark and handsome Italo-Croatian boyfriend and I were moving into our first place together. Who knew that he was only a few blocks away in Prospect where I had been living? A funny thing about this story is that my boyfriend had actually been to see the same clairvoyant as me around the same time.   She told him that he was going to meet someone soon, too: a school teacher who loved to cook, she said “I can smell the food! Oh, the dinner parties you will throw together!” I guess she was talking about me? A school teacher who loves to cook…? Sounds pretty accurate!

11 years later, here we are, married, in our home in the quaint picturesque Adelaide Hills where we live with our two labradors, Fergus and Nelson, who share our love for food. I’m still teaching, we are still hosting dinner parties, and I still love to cook! We like to eat out and drink good wine, so it’s a good thing that we live in a wine region and only an hour drive each way to the Barossa Valley and McLaren Vale. Sharing food and wine together or with friends must be our favourite thing to do.

Thanks for taking an interest in my blog. It is called ‘Aldo Cucina’ for two reasons: ‘cucina’ is the Italian word for ‘he or she cooks’ and for ‘kitchen’. I look forward to sharing recipes and food inspiration with you and letting you know about some of the great food and wine we come across on our perpetual food safari. I invite you to share the food that I cook, in my kitchen; the food that my husband, Matt, and I like to eat, and the kind of food Fergus and Nelson look at us longingly for…

Buon appetito!

Aldo

Wedding and Wine!

Family Photo

Nelson (left) and Fergus (right) in party mode.

Cake Time!

I’m just someone who likes cooking and for whom sharing food is a form of expression – Maya Angelou