Chef and Co-Owner at Bottega Vinovo

One piece of advice that has stuck with me is to always speak up for yourself! You are on the team for a reason: your voice and perspective always matter.

My first experience abroad changed my life and my career. I moved to the Cayman Islands when I was 20. I didn’t speak English at all, and I didn’t know anything about food, products or desserts that weren’t Italian. I learned a lot there and that experience opened the doors to everything that came after.

Cooking is the only job I have ever had in my life; I can’t see myself doing something different. Even though I started very young, there was never a “realization” moment for me, but rather a constant feeling that when I was in the kitchen, I was in the right spot. That feeling has stayed with me throughout my years in the kitchen. The better I got, the more I wanted to learn, which led me to spending even more time in the kitchen. It was a cycle and I loved it.

Right now, I am not sure about how to maintain a work/life balance. But I feel good about this -- we have some big goals at Fiola and as a company that I am excited to tackle -- balance will come soon.

In each one of our restaurants my goal is to inspire my teams to make work an enjoyable place to come to for everyone. It is very important for me to celebrate their wins and acknowledge a job well done.

My biggest inspirations are our guests. In our business there is nothing more important than making our guests happy and being able to make people happy is what keeps my culinary wheel running.

Inspiration can come at anytime and anywhere. The idea is to transmit our passion, our roots and our feelings to our guests using food as the channel of transmission. I find my inspiration in everyday things. One of the elements that inspires me the most is my homeland of Italy.