About
It all starts with a seed.
My story too.
My memories
I grew up among the olive, cherry and almond trees of our family farm, which I still run today together with my mother.
As a child I often followed Nonnì, my grandmother, who knew every corner of that countryside. She knew when it was time to fertilise, to tend to a tree or to pick its fruit. Nothing escaped her.
With her I learned to know the land, to respect its rhythms and to recognise the value of what it gives us. Today all of this is part of the way I live and cook.
Knowledge passed from hand to hand
Nonnì was the only one in the family who made the orecchiette for Sunday lunch.
I still remember how, despite her illness, she would get up to teach me how to make them. It is a moment I still carry with me, because in those hands there was much more than just a recipe.
From her and the other women in my family I learned that every dish has its own story and its own method, and both deserve to be handed down.
Over the years I kept learning from the people I met along the way, making their teachings my own, from shaping pasta by hand to traditional cooking over an open flame.
“In those hands there was much more than just a recipe.”
The road that brought me here
My journey didn’t happen only in the kitchen. I worked in a plant nursery, among cuttings and grafts, and in a bakery, where I refined my wood-fired oven techniques. I deepened my knowledge of raw ingredients working for a fruit and vegetable business, before finally arriving in a restaurant kitchen.
They may seem like very different experiences, but each of them taught me the value of patience, humility and respect.
Over the years I also understood how important it is to take care of people, to listen to them and to pay attention to the small details that make them feel welcome.
Today I bring all of this into my work, from choosing the ingredients to the moment we gather around the table.
Plant nursery
The value of sharing
Bakery
The wood-fired oven
Fruit & vegetables
Raw ingredients
Restaurant
The kitchen
Why The Apulian Keeper
There came a moment when I felt the need to stop and ask myself what I really wanted to do.
Looking for an answer, I realised it was already in my story: in the recipes I had watched being made for years, in the lessons I had received and in everything I had lived until then.
I didn’t want all of this to remain only in my memory. I wanted other people to discover it and experience it.
That wish is how The Apulian Keeper was born.
“To me, being a keeper of Apulian tradition means not letting certain knowledge be forgotten.”
Today I share this heritage through Apulian cooking experiences, bringing my family’s recipes into the homes of those who want to discover this part of our history.
I would like everyone to take home something that goes beyond the memory of a good dish: the curiosity to understand why certain ingredients are used, the meaning behind a preparation and the beauty of a cuisine born from a simple life, poor in means but rich in values.
