About me
Ciao!
My name is Enrica Monzani, I was born and bred in Genoa, the capitol of the Italian Riviera.
I’m a home cook, a culinary researcher and experience curator, here in Liguria.
After 15 years practicing as maritime lawyer I decided to change my life and started following my skills and interests: cooking, studying, making researches, writing. The common thread? Liguria.
In 2016 I opened this web site to share reliable, family recipes and food stories from the Italian Riviera. Then, little by little I evolved, my interests and knowledge expanded, and organizing cooking classes and food experiences became an important part of my job.
What do I do?
My mission is always the same: preserving the Ligurian culinary heritage from the dust of time.
I do it though historical researches, visiting the remotest corners of my Region, talking to old people (our living patrimony), discovering local producers and artisans and then sharing all of it with you.
How? Always writing Ligurian recipes and stories in my blog and now also with my first (bi-lingual) cookbook “Liguria in cucina- the flavours of Liguria.
I organize for foreigners cooking classes in my kitchen or privately at home and food tours in Genoa or food tours in Santa Margherita and Camogli.
I also organize food experiences in Liguria to discover our famous basil and pesto or our liquid gold, extra-virgin olive oil.
I also give online cooking classes via Zoom and during the pandemic I recorded a Virtual Liguria cooking course on demand.
Sometimes I consult as Ligurian food travel designer for privates and foreign travel agents
You can follow my daily food adventures on my Instagram Account. We can also stay in touch though my newsletter “Taste of Liguria”, the mean I chose to create a community of people in love with Italian cooking and Liguria, as me, a place where I share my ongoing projects, my travel tips, some lost and found recipes, some reportage of my wanderings around the region, upcoming events and online cook-along.
Something more
about me?
I believe history and local traditions are like roots that ground us. They make us special, unique, and save the world from the aridity of globalisation.
I believe in authentic, seasonal foods, grown with love and in respect of the environment.
I appreciate the value of time, of living slow and engaging in activities speaking of love and care, like cooking. I was behind a stove as soon as I was tall enough to get to it and it was in the kitchen that my family taught me how love is best expressed through the food you prepare. Because sharing a meal is one of the most intimate things people can do and cooking is about taking care of others, it’s a true gift of generosity.
With my blog, cookbook and newsletter I share recipes I’ve seen cooked at home since I was a child, recipes gifted by friends who are cooks better skilled than myself, recipes stolen from an old lady I met while waiting to be served at the vegetable shop or recipes taken from one of the countless Ligurian kitchen books I collect. All reliable and tested many times. If you want a taste of what’s all about, here’s the blog recipes archive.
I’m a proud mum of two beautiful, brave and smart children: Giorgio and Elena.
I compulsively buy cookbooks: the gorgeous, big, heavy ones, loaded with beautiful images and the Ligurian ones worn out over time lying in some second-hand bookshop. Every time I bring home a new one, I promise I’ll cook at least 3 recipes from it, but most times I end up being satisfied by simply devouring them with my eyes and knowing they are sitting smug in my personal library.
I love antiques and old objects, those with a story to tell. I would take any time a chipped dinner set over a new Ikea one or granny’s linen embroidered tablecloth over a latest fashion immaculate one off the shelf of a high street shop.
I prefer to holiday in the mountains over the seaside, but this is probably quite normal for those who are born with the sea in their eyes and carry it within, always.
Every Spring I commit to grow with my kids a vegetable garden on our sun-kissed balcony . We pour a lot of love and enthusiasm in the exercise and sometimes we are rewarded.
