Tag: food

Italian spritz with cruditee’

We don’t just drink an aperitif, we EAT it as well!

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Italian pinzimonio, which means cruditee (mostly carrots, celery, fennel, indivia salad) dipped in olive oil, vinegar and salt accompanied by the most amazing Spritz ever!

Saturday night at home, but feels like the best bar.

Here in the UK there is a different tradition around aperitif, even when you move away from the pub & beer combo, to something more “upscale” (noting against beer, I love it from my Dutch days!) there is not much food/appetizer served with your drinks: a few olives, perhaps some chips but you have to ask for more to accompany what’s in your glass.

In Italy you can have a proper dinner while you do your aperitif: there is food to take to your table or to nibble at the bar, “real” food like bowls of pasta with simple sauces, hummus with focaccia or cut vegetables, pizza slices, cold cuts, and mountains of chips. The chic places would bring these pre-arranged plates to your table so you can sit and sip your champagne in peace without mingling with the people at the bar to fill in your plate.

It’s a treat you can have only once in a while, unless you really want to skip dinner every evening, as it’s so satisfying you won’t eat anything else back home (and as an added bonus, you don’t get drunk because the food you have with alcohol prevents you from absorbing all the spirits immediately :))

Why The Mentor Kitchen?

Food, business and the likes

“Walking on eggshells”: have you ever noticed how many references to food we make in our daily language?

Food idioms are just another reminder that food is one of our main thoughts, especially in some cultures and countries (yes, I am Italian and yes we love food). While preparing our meals, we are often in a state of flux, just focussing on the rhythm of the knife that cuts the onion, the smell of those mint leaves, the consistency of the egg white we are whipping up, and then the pleasure of consuming our delicious food with someone we love and cherish.

Food nourishes us and those who eat with us, it helps concentrate on the task at hand, while reflecting on bigger issues and challenges in our lives. So that onion becomes the troubles you are trying to cut away, mint gives you a subtle energy to refresh your thoughts and move on with life and the souffle’ carries your hopes that a specific idea or project won’t deflate as soon as it’s out of the oven.

This is a personal space, where I reflect on my connection to food and the inspiration it gives me every day to think more and think harder to my business challenges: over time sourcing and preparing meals have become a sort of therapeutic approach to the everyday business challenges that would otherwise seem hard to overcome from the same level they were created.

In my job, I like to define myself as a renaissance marketer, one that truly loves to communicate and share the right message at the right time to the right person. I have worked in different countries for more than two decades (The Netherlands, UK, USA, Switzerland and of course Italy). Throughout my career, mentoring has always been part of my daily job, be it with current team members, former colleagues or friends who need a support and encouragement to develop their skills and careers in a fulfilling way.

Eggs
Walking on eggshells