At Silvia Rocca’s house, memories were made around the table. “I grew up in an Italian family where food was the centre of everything,” she recalls. “Sundays, we’d wake up to the aroma of fresh bread baking in the oven and tomato sauce simmering on the stove, and then we’d be sitting at lunch watching TV, talking and laughing and enjoying authentic cuisine made from scratch. It was wonderful.”
Silvia considered her love of food a hobby and spent some time volunteering at a Toronto cooking school and working in a pastry wholesale division. “I was exploring healthier, more colourful foods simply because I’m attracted to them,” she explains. “Some people can’t get enough of reading fiction and binge-watching TV shows. I read cookbooks and watch culinary programs for fun.” It wasn’t until her late 30s, when she was on a clean eating journey, that it occurred to her she could make a career out of eating well.
