Our newest contributor is Chef and Founder of Strawberry & Sage - Silvia Baldini. Hailing from Turin, Italy she is a huge personality and talent and we can't wait for her tantalizing recipes and general advice on cooking and entertaining. Following is more on Silvia:
After her classical studies in Italy, a degree in architecture and graduating from the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, Silvia entered the advertising world. She was an art director for many years at famous NYC ad agencies, producing successful and award winning campaigns. Secretly, however, she always dreamed of becoming a chef. So, she went back to school and graduated from the Cornell and French Culinary Institute in NYC with a degree in restaurant management.
She moved to London with her husband Michele and son Augusto. She continued her culinary education with a 'Cuisine Diploma' from Cordon Bleu. After a year's break to welcome her daughter Valentina, she started her classical chef training. She survived Cordon Bleu and all the grumpy French chefs - graduating at the top of the class!
She took a job as a chef at the Ritz, where she spatch-cocked and cleaned more game birds than the whole of London could eat in a lifetime! But she learned a lot and got to fulfill one of her biggest dreams - to yell "SERVICE!" in a restaurant, really, really loud. Working at prestigious European Michelin star restaurants inspired her to start her own event company called Strawberry and Sage. It's a creative food group that is an outlet for her real passion - FOOD.
What's next? Silvia has appeared on national TV and food shows and is collaborating with a group of food writers on a cook book about women in the kitchen. She has also teamed up with HamletHub New Canaan Editor Rachel Lampen to jointly organize Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution in May 2014.