ABOUT ME

Hi I'm Sami!

I grew up with two Italian parents from New York, so we did a LOT of eating. Every night of my childhood that I can remember we ate together as a family. My mother loved to cook and my dad loved to eat, so we always had a 5 course meal on the table. Every meal consisted of a main dish, a starch, two vegetables (different colors of course) and bread. We never skimped on dinner in this house! Throughout the years I would help my mom in the kitchen, slowly learning her impeccable cooking skills. My mother rarely used a recipe, and if she did, she almost always modified it without writing it down. I learned quickly to write down her little twists so that I could recreate them in the future. My favorite was helping on the holidays, when we were feeding 20+ people. Huge meals for people with huge appetites. Spending all day in the kitchen with my mom was a dream. She taught me almost everything she knows, though I still have to call every now and then and get some tips. When I’m in the kitchen, I feel closest to my mom. It’s one of my happiest places.

My mother gave me my love of cooking, and my father gave me a love for dining out. Every Friday was pizza night, and we ate out usually two or three nights a week. My father has a wide palette, so our weekly dining adventures took us all over the cuisine spectrum. From Mediterranean, to Indian, to Chinese, we ate and loved it all! As I got older, people started to notice I knew all the hot spots and would ask me for recommendations. I am a big fan of building businesses up on sites like Yelp because I know first hand how negative reviews can hurt a business. I hope you find my recommendations section helpful, and I hope that it inspires you to write your own positive review of a restaurant next time you thoroughly enjoy your experience.

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I've been a vegetarian for 15 years, but I've lived with meat eaters my entire life. I stopped eating meat simply because I don't like the taste, but I still love to cook with it. In most of my meat recipes, you will find a "Make It Vegetarian" section at the bottom. This is how I personally enjoy my cooking, while everyone else enjoys it the way it comes. I hope this helps any other veg heads out there who live with and cook for the meat eaters in their life!

I hope you find a deeper love for food on my site, as its intended use is to bring people together. Whether that’s in the kitchen or around the table.