Eat Drink Ideas

About Filippo

I was born in Castelvetrano (Sicily), home to the famous Pane Nero and raised on it. I lived in Sicily until I was 20 years old. Moved to Milan in 1975. Here I completed my studies in Biology achieving a doctorate in biological sciences and I practised the profession of microbiologist in a large " NHS" hospital for 5 years. In 1989 I moved to Edinburgh University. I met my wife Mary, it was (is) the love story that changed my life. We now live with 2 wonderful kids  (Josh and Chiara) in Rushden a beautiful tiny village in Hertfordshire and we cook....we cook.

Life has trained me as a cook. For many years I enjoyed (and followed) my  mother's culinary skills and my father's passion for taste and good food. I had to learn very early to prepare my own appetising meals and early on became a passion that my friends  (from Sicily to Scotland) have enjoyed.

In the eighty's in Milan we formed a private club (Wild Life) it was perhaps what today the Slow Food movement would have called a convivium. I loved to cook for those friends and they loved to be fed.

For me cooking in the UK was and still is, a matter of survival. In 2001 I started a Slow Food  convivium (Appetite-Herts).

Retrospectively thinking, I have come to the conclusion that I have touched more deeply the hearts and minds of my human fellows with my cooking than with scientific papers .

In a way this is what "Eat Drink Ideas" is:  A small commercial venture that is born from a passion to satisfy my desire for "touching" people.