This is me

Hello and welcome to my humble kitchen. My name is Joanne.

I was born and raised in Southern Ontario (Toronto, Niagara Falls, Brampton then back to Toronto) and currently live in Milan, Italy. (Click on *My Milano* for photographs of the city)

I come from an Italian family and my earliest memories revolve around the kitchen and food.  Food was such a central part of our lives that I didn’t realize how much until I left the comfort of Mom and Dad’s and went off to college. To my great surprise, all those years of watching my grandmothers and my mom paid off.  Sugo? No problem. Melanzane? Done. Tiramisu? Can do. Suddenly I understood something about my mom and aunts and grandmothers. Cooking wasn’t a chore. It wasn’t something that you did because you had to, it was a labour of love.  Love for your family and love of the food. A giving of yourself that brought joy to your loved ones as well as yourself. Oh and let’s admit it, eating good food and enjoying good wine is one of life’s greatest pleasures.

I became hooked on feeding my friends. Treating them to dishes that were common fare at my home, but were new and exotic to them. It became a real passion.

The years have passed and my love for food has grown.  Then came the internet! At first I was content to just read food blogs. One often leading to others. Trying the recipes and feeding my family and friends with the fruits of my experiments, the fruits of my passion. And so, hoping to be as capable here as some of the other bloggers out there, I have called this blog Frutto della Passione, in honour of the country that I now call home and the passion that I have shared with all the most important people in my life.