What Food R U? was born as a tribute to my father, and for those who love the essence of food, of feeding and being fed.

Dad, who was, in reality, a manager, had an enormous ability to prepare lunch or dinner for his guests, even with only three ingredients.

He made culinary “miracles”!

I have always asserted that this was because, as a failed musician, he had found – aside from its natural talent as a “chef” – a way to put together flavors, colors, shapes, a harmony of ingredients as if they were notes on a staves.

He always remembered his mom who cooked him clams, when as a little baby boy he was still on the
highchair. He “sensed” their aroma and the taste.

It was an act of love.

That is why he used to cook them form me, ever since I was a child, and that smell, that taste are always the same and I will never forget them.

He taught me how to “nourish” body, mind and heart.

After all, food is the only thing that truly belong to us: it becomes part of us and makes us live.
Without food we cannot live.

However, the cuisine, as he wrote in his excellent book on the cuisine of Gargano, is an art that must be cultivated, it is a belief, an important tradition, a set of experiences originated from ancient civilizations.

Hence, What Food R U? was born in 2014, with the priceless collaboration of the Westin Starwood – The Excelsior Florence – learn more on the number Zero site! –since 2015 it has become a company.