About Me

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Hi everyone!

My name is Grazia – direct from the land of fine food, ancient tradition and taking things easy!

My family comes from the Amalfi Coast. My grandmother was from Vietri and my grandfather from Maiori, on my mother’s side, while my father’s family is from Salerno, where I was born. My grandmother always used to say that we were Saracens, “children of Sara”, as the Arabs were called in medieval Italy. For centuries the Amalfi Coast lived face to face with the Arab world, through Saracen raids, trade with Amalfi’s merchants, and the Arab-Norman arches you can still see in Amalfi and Ravello. Maybe that is why, years later, I chose to study Arabic and ended up living ten years in the Middle East, where I also taught Italian at university in Amman. Today I’m back in the classroom myself, studying Modern Asian and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Zurich. Her words have stayed with me, and so has the feeling that bread, like people, belongs to more than one shore.

Talking to people, I always get the sense that there is a strong perception of Italy as a land of beauty, pleasure and the easy life. Yet lately, everyone seems to be running, rushing, struggling to get some time for themselves. We seem to be suffocating in oceans of communication, social networking, the “need” to respond to messages at an ever-increasing speed, eating too fast or “on the go” and, in all that, rapidly losing the beauty of life.

I often ask myself what the value of human life on this Earth is, and I believe I have found answers by observing my own surroundings.

At present I live in Zürich, after ten years in the UAE. For those of you unfamiliar with Dubai, the city is extremely hectic, with little time to relax and a constant stream of commitments to take you away from yourself. One day, I found myself running round like a “spinning top” and wondering why. That was when I discovered the beauty of slowing things down and making the conscious effort to prepare things myself at home… and here comes the foodie part of me.

Becoming a mother made me even keener on cooking, with my thoughts on my children’s and my family’s health. So I began exploring the beauty of experimenting with food and the right cooking processes, and eventually earned a certificate as a professional chef, to get the best out of truly natural and fine ingredients.

It all started eighteen years ago, when I received a small piece of sourdough from a very good friend of mine – and what a revelation that was! Sourdough is a pure miracle of nature: water and flour fusing together, generating thousands of bacteria and wild yeasts (don’t let that scare you; it’s the healthy stuff) until the dough starts growing by itself. Because sourdough is “alive”, you have to feed it, just like a child, to keep it healthy and strong. Today I am still taking care of my “small baby”, feeding it and making my weekly loaf of bread – it has become part of the family!

Unlike children, sourdough is not so demanding! You can feed it once a week and it will be fine. And this brings me back to what I mean about slowing things down. Taking care of one of nature’s miracle products helped me to look inside myself, slowing down and finding pleasure in something very simple, yet so emotional. When I see my loaf of bread double after a day of proofing, I feel a great sense of achievement and satisfaction.

With all this in mind, I feel it is something worth sharing. I am not just going to hand you a loaf of bread: I want to take you on a journey to the “emotional side” of the process itself, showing you that giving time to yourself and your ingredients leads to a healthier lifestyle – for you and your loved ones.

After all, let’s bring back some of that easy-going lifestyle I mentioned at the start, and enjoy the beauty and pleasure of exploring the slower side of life.

 

​Where the journey has taken me

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What started as my own slow experiment gradually became something I share with others. Since 2019 I have been teaching sourdough in Zürich, and more than 800 home bakers have mixed, folded and shaped their first loaves with me (and with Grannie, of course!).

Today you can find me at Museum Mühlerama, where I run my workshops inside a working mill, in company kitchens for team-building days (more than 65 so far), and at my own table with small private groups. And when your starter sulks or your loaf refuses to rise, Sourdough Doctor is there to help.

More than 70 workshops later, the idea is still the same: give yourself and your ingredients time, and good things will rise.

Buon viaggio!
Grazia