From Kitchen - To Table - To Text- My story 

Born with a wooden spoon in my hand I  was raised around food. Food was the main love language of both sides of my family. Large elaborate Sunday dinners were a mainstay of my childhood. Huge tables were set and cooking was a show. We were not wealthy but rich with food and love for one another.  Everything was made from scratch , by hand, from the heart and passed down through  generations of kitchen apprenticeship and story telling.   Anyone who wanted could drop in and eat and one was never allowed to leave without three hour goodbyes and heaping plates of food - enough for days. My  Father's family  - Baldocchi- hails from Lucca Italy and my mother's family-  Parochelli -  from Palermo Sicily and Naples. I had the beauty of being raised with the diverse food cultures and customs of these regions.  Growing up art and education were also my passions along side food. I lived and breathed cooking and creating. My favorite memories and years were spent in the kitchens of my Nonnas (Grandmothers) - Zias ( Aunts) and mother.  

Self taught I learned from standing alongside family . Fresh out of high school  I started working in restaurants while  attending art school  and  continued to work in restaurants and the food industry during graduate school and for several years as a new educator and behavioral specialist  in Chicago. It is in these restaurants I often tell people that I received my true education. Not only did I get more formalized culinary training- but here is where I honed my people - negotiation and social skills. I learned that patience is essential but it is also important to set boundaries and to stop being a people pleaser. Working in the service and food industry was my most difficult yet most rewarding career. It prepared me for the classroom where I spent 20 glorious years working with students in the inner city  and how to flourish and perservere as a working  artist. 

During my young adulthood I was plagued by and almost died from severe autoimmune illness. I was diagnosed with Crones Disease and then later Lupus but my team could not stop my flares and constant hospitalizations.   I went through surgeries and intense medical trials.  Often too ill to speak on my own behalf my. mother was my advocate and strongest protector. After continuously bringing up my life time of severe allergies and known immune system dysfunction I underwent biopsies and was diagnosed with Celiac and Hashimoto's Diseases at the age of 25. Although Celiac is actually quite common throughout Italy- especially Tuscany and the surrounding regions, doctors here in the United States still did not really know the full scope of that or Hashimoto's. I was told that steroid therapy and experimental meds were my only hope and that my love affair with cooking and food was essentially over.  

 During this time I developed severe skin reactions to topical gluten containing grains and wheat , working  in restaurants and commercial kitchens was no longer an option due to exposure and contamination.   I had to completely re -learn how to cook and had to re- stock my kitchen . I had to retire my beloved pots, pans and vintage pasta machine that were passed down to me.  My first few years in my new kitchen were frustrating- joyless and expensive. Ready made gluten free baked goods were tasteless bricks and - at that time- there were few options for pastas- flours- etc.  Through trial and error and a longing. for the foods I was raised on I began to recreate my family dishes and desserts. I began to source alternate flours and grains and began to study how  restaurants back in Italy adapted cuisine and ingredients for people with Celiac Sprue Disease and other allergies. It became my therapy and outlet from the stress of working in the third largest  public school system in the United States  and a counter to my hours growing my art studio.  Like every savvy teacher of teens knows -food is the magical healer and motivator. I began to bring in my goodies and food for my co-workers and students to try and give me honest feedback. They fell in love  these " tasting lunches" and "foodie Fridays " and learned about my dietary needs as I learned about theirs. Acts of food and art became my tool to reach the most in need learners. My family also ate my adapted dishes and could not tell the difference other than expressing shock and concern when I sat down and ate the same food with them. They also shared the notion that gluten free meant tasteless - bland and was not something to be enjoyed.  It was here that the idea of blogging and writing a cookbook was born, I was asked daily by friends and family to write one and teach them but time was never on my side . 

It wasn't until my mother and last Nonna were diagnosed with stage 4 bone and lung cancers during the pandemic that I thought about jumping head first back into food and culinary writing.  Sadly they both passed within a month of one another and I went into autoimmune induced heart failure  few months after in 2022.  On my birthday in February of 2022 I was taken off the critical list and deemed stable. I owe my life and second chance to the amazing staff and medical team at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago and my guardian angels, my mom and grandmother.  The day after returning home from the hospital,  I commissioned a pendant from a dear jeweler friend of mine.  I wear it daily to remind me of my true birthday and Alive Day ( February 2022). This pendant was also a promise to myself to live my most authentic and true life. Taking the lessons I learned through processing my grief of losing the two people I cherished most in my life and fighting to recover , I stopped putting off my desires and dreams. After intense soul searching -and much difficulty-  I decided to leave education and behavioral health  ( for now) and pursue Art and Food full-time. This blog- my books and current art is the culmination of those steps- actions and elbow grease.  I hope you find the joy in this project as much as I do and make my family's ( and my own original recipes ) in good health and happiness.  From my Tuscan Kitchen to yours! Dalla mia cucina all tua! Baci!  

With much love and gratitude ,

Paula