Some of my earliest memories as a child are cooking with my grandparents in Sicily. There, cooking is a big component of the daily basis and routine. Every weekend, I saw my grandfather cooking. He would go to the market and meticulously buy what was in season, bringing it home and creating the most magical meals for family lunches and dinners. My grandmother would start cooking early in the morning. I would wake up to the beautiful aroma from her kitchen creations floating up into my bedroom.

It’s this connection that cooking has to my childhood memories that allows me to see each person I cook for as part of my family. Cooking is an expression of tradition and of love. Whoever it is for, whether a client at a restaurant or my wife and daughter at home, I treat creating their meal with the same passion and precision.

Acknowledging the life of the ingredients used and the meaning and history behind them is the essence of traditional cooking mixed with modern ideals and beliefs.

I try as much as I can to use seasonal, authentic ingredients. That’s why I source ingredients from Toronto, Canada, Italy, Sicily, and all over the world. Bringing authentic Sicilian dishes to life requires the right ingredients. Sourcing the best ingredients allows the flavours of each to shine through. I try to use few ingredients to showcase their quality, flavour, and taste. Olive oil and salt may be seen as simple ingredients, but not for me. Every ingredient has a place and a purpose, bringing light, healthy, fulfilling dishes to your plate.

One of my favourite dishes to make since I was a child is polpo. My grandfather made this often, using the old Sicilian tradition of boiling the octopus in water with a wine cork. He always said this made the octopus more tender. This may not be scientific, but to this day I still make polpo by boiling octopus in water with a wine cork, just like my grandfather. It’s a little bit of him – a little bit of my childhood – in each polpo I serve.

Cooking goes beyond simply the dishes I make. My kitchen is a classroom. I have people from all over the world work with me in the kitchen and I am able to help them embrace the traditional flavour and learn from them as they incorporate their own cultures and values. Cooking is something you never stop learning and I try to push boundaries, experiment, and be open to new ideas even in the most traditional meals.

I truly believe in what I do. I feel like such a lucky person because I love what I do and love being able to share myself, my family, and my memories through my food with the world.

Now, I go to the market and choose seasonal ingredients. I wake my family up on weekends with the aroma of my latest creation wafting into their rooms. I put the wine cork in the octopus pot. Through my cooking, I get to pass on the traditions from my grandparents and these beautiful memories I cherish to my children. This is a blessing that I take with me every day in every dish I imagine and create for those I love.