Elisa cook out of passion

I am Elisa, I am 40 years old and I cook out of passion ... a passion that I was born with and that I carry with me to this day.

“Elisa q.b.” is my nickname on the web; “q.b.” as “as needed”, one of the terms I love the most in the cooking.

I live in the Chianti region though my ancestors come from different parts of Italy. I always say that our family is like a ‘melting pot’ - I see myself as a mixed Italian! My paternal grandmother was Sicilian and she went to Venice as a young woman to look for work. She found work and she also found my paternal grandfather and together they moved to San Fedriano in Florence where my father was born after the Second World War. I am very proud of my surname, ‘Berghi’ , because in German it means"from the mountain" and I love the mountains.
My maternal grandparents were both from Avellino, in Campania where my mother was born. She was a very lively girl whose parents thought that she needed some discipline so they sent her to study in a convent school in Florence – my grandparents could not have imagined the consequences of this choice! But this is another story, another chapter!

I define myself as a natural born traveler and thanks to my parents I was able to cultivate this love for travel. My memories of childhood travels are very connected to food: food that nourishes, food that tells of a land and its people.

The mackerel on the beach of Fiume in Croatia, the mussels in a small Normandy restaurant run by a crusty bearded gentleman, the first horseradish sauce tasted in Prague when I was 13 (I was almost dying of asphyxiation ...) the Hungarian palachinke. My motto was, ‘I don’t have to like everything but I do have to try everything’!! This remains my attitude even if I have become more selective over the years.

When I cook for and with my guests, I try to share with them my story, my land, a part of me. My hope is that through our food they will make memories that will last a lifetime and that they always leave with a feeling of warmth.

In my blog I would like to bring all these elements together to create a ‘conversation’ about regional cuisine, its past and present and to combine this with tales of my passion for travel and exploring the food traditions of other cultures.

So follow me on this journey!