I was born and grew up in Catania, Sicily under the volcano of Mount Etna. My parents owned a restaurant in the city, and as soon as I could walk I was waiting tables and cleaning fish. I worked at the restaurant throughout my adolescence under my father as chef and my brother as a pizza chef. The food was classic for the regions of Bologna, Emilia Romagna; my father’s hometown which is renowned for some of the best food in Italy, and my mother’s town of Naples where the pizza dish was born. My brother was one the best pizza chefs in Sicily because he followed the original recipes from Naples passed on from our mother.