Ciao ragazzi, I’m Roberta, here everyone knows me for this phrase lol.. It’s contagious, and my British friends love it.
I was born and raised in Foggia, north Puglia, I left the country very young and I’ve been away from Mamma and from Puglia for 16 year. I have lived in Uk for the past 9 years in a beautiful area, not far from London, in Bedfordshire, for most of my Italian friends it seem strange living in a small village, but when I arrived in UK I immediately decided to don’t live in the big city of London, it’s amazing don’t get me wrong but too chaotic for me. I remember coming to the UK directly from Dubai, where I used to live, and I found myself in Bedford, do you know that Bedford is the most Italian city in England? Maybe that’s why I quickly felt at home.. well, without considering the constant rain and very little sun!
Believe or not I didn’t come here for work but for love, yes l’amore.. sometimes love leads you to leave everything behind and follow your heart without even thinking about what to do in a new place! Changing country for me it was the best opportunity to also change my career, I was almost tired of being a chef so I decided to change completely and get an office job, you know the classic shift from Monday to Friday, I finally I can enjoy the bank holidays, Christmas, Easter, my cats, but all this didn’t last long, after few years I understood that that job was not my passion, no interest, therefore could not be my new career! I went back to Puglia for a long well deserved holiday in Rodi Garganico and got inspired and decided to get back my chef jackets and start all over again for something completely new and Pasta Evangelists was the right step for me.
I love my job in the kitchen so much that it feels like I never work.. You know, like a child that goes to the playground, for me it is the same every time I have to create something new.
I started to make pasta when I was only 5 years old, when you grow up with Pugliese nonna it’s easy to find yourself making kilos of Orecchiette every week, this is how my adventure in the kitchen began, since then I have not stopped .. I started in a typical Trattoria in Puglia, I was 16 years old, it was not easy, sometimes I wondered if it was really right to spend so much time in the kitchen listening the Head Chef screaming at me and the fear of always making a mistake but if I look back now, I wish I could start all again just because I would love to meet again those amazing people, get to taste the food and continue to learn new things.
At this point I was ready for my next business adventure, Vienna, where I worked for 6 years as a Head Chef and learned a lot about how different cultures like to eat Italian food so don’t get upset if they ask you to overcook the pasta, or if you can add a dash of cream!
After so many different experiences, now I can say that I have my dream job, I love working at Pasta Evangelists creating and teaching different types of pasta and most of all bringing our Italian culture to the table of thousands of English families.
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/deliarobi/