Welcome To Spice And Life!

Nice to see you here. I’m Elle, Italian (half Canadian), food lover, sunseeker, rock’n’roll enthusiast, interior designer, married to Jay, Indian (100%), my right hand in all of our adventures, and partner in crime.

Spice and Life is our hub where we write about our passion for cooking with herbs and spices, sharing tips and tricks we learned from our families and friends growing up, or discovered ourselves the hard way, writing recipes from our countries and the countries we visit during one of our well-planned escapes and posting videos to make the most complicated recipes super easy.

Throughout Spice and Life, you will notice how we like to use herbs and spices to bring out the most flavors, carrying our travels home one dish at a time.

We hope to show everyone how we are all united by food, and how spices and herbs are the ingredients that can elevate a quick lunch or dinner to a delicious meal – no matter where you come from in the world.

More About Elle

Like most teenagers, I started working in the hospitality sector when I was 16, however, I was also lucky enough that the very first restaurant I worked for was right on the beach!

That was my first working experience, and I kept on working in bars, restaurants, and hotels until my very last 20s.

The secret? I worked my way up, all the way to being the head chef for the last four years of my journey in the sector.

Working as a chef in a small central London cafe meant I had to deal with the regular everyday menu, plus a bunch of daily specials, showcasing a variety of vegan, vegetarian, meat, and fish dishes from all over the world... picking up quite a few tricks along the way, before moving into interior design, my other passion.

I started Spice and Life with my husband Jay in December 2020 after being together for well over a decade.

Since 2009, mixing our food and culture meant not only noticing the differences between how we grew up around the table but also how similar at the end of all of this, we are.

Since childhood, I have always been overweight and have been put on strict diets on and off for most of my life, oftentimes achieving no real results at all.

In 2017, after years of yo-yo dieting, I reached 262 lbs (119 kg), and, with our wedding two years away, I decided to lose the extra weight and fit into my dream mermaid-style dress, and I did it. [You can see my after and before pictures just above!]

Over the next two years, I exercised and recreated authentic Italian and Indian meals realizing that most of them are healthy to start with and that what had made me go back to my bad eating habits in the past was the lack of flavor – the boring steamed broccoli with no added taste or texture.

This is how Spice and Life came to life as an idea, and how I understood the important role herbs and spices play in everyday life.

After starting Spice and Life, in 2021 I was diagnosed with PCOS and a lot of my behaviors in the past, my obsession with sugar and mood swings were explained (amongst other fun moments Jay had to live with me!), and my need to further develop this concept became even bigger.

Cooking with herbs and spices, and understanding how cuisines all over the world balance flavors on a thin invisible thread, has become the mission of Spice and Life – because whether you are cooking a spicy South Indian curry or a rich Mediterranean sauce, we all start with an empty saucepan, a bunch of raw ingredients and a few pots of raw spices and herbs on our counters.

How to Get Around Spice and Life

If this is your first time on the site, I would recommend having a look at:

👩🏻‍🍳 Recipes

As the world is wonderful because we are all different, our recipes have been divided in many different ways, so that you can find what you are looking for (or something completely unexpected), in multiple ways.

📖 Food Facts

This is where you will find all the ‘How To-s’ and information about herbs and spices. For me, as an Italian, learning how to balance Indian spices while cooking for Jay, and understanding why each ingredient is part of a dish has been enlightening and it has made me think more about why some ingredients are added in mine and other countries’ dishes.

Fun Facts About Me

📜 Education

I am an interior designer obsessed with the relationship between space, objects, and people.

🌇 Birth Place

I was born in North-Eastern Italy, but have been living in London, England since 2009.

✈️ Travel

Although I love Asia and Europe, where Jay and I are from and have traveled to multiple countries on these continents, my happy place is the Caribbean, with Negril, Jamaica being the number 1 spot for me in the whole world. Nothing beats a sunset on 7 Mile Beach!

🎵 Music

No doubt Rock’n’Roll and Country! I’ve been lucky enough to see many international bands, however, my favorites ever are Aerosmith, Meat Loaf, and Nazareth.

😨 Biggest Fear

Crows – yes, the bird. And no, I am not kidding.

🥘 Favorite foods and most-made recipe

My favorite foods are chocolate, ice cream, and a breakfast of toast, avocado, and San Daniele ham, while the recipe I cook the most is - no doubt - Mediterranean Roasted Vegetables – I always have some in the fridge, ready to throw in some spelt pasta or to eat with some eggs. 

Thank you for popping by and I hope you stick around for a bowl of pasta or two!

Elle ❤️