Travel Expert
Adventure travel Consultant and Italy product manager at
Backtrack Adventures
Fortitude Valley, Queensland, 4006
I was born in a little town called Sieci, just over 10 kilometres upstream from Florence on the river Arno.
My Irish mother studied at an international cooking school in Sussex, U.K., before moving to Tuscany 50 years ago where my brother and I were raised on a country farmhouse. Here, I have indulged in fresh fruit and vegetables from the farm’s peach, cherry and fig trees, and picked wild asparagus which found its way into my mother’s prized risotto. My love for food started early, helping my mother with cooking, catering and all the odd jobs in the hospitality business – a wonderful learning curve.
Hospitality and a passion for food, ingredients and good cooking remained in my blood, and on graduating high school I worked in restaurants in Dublin and London, before moving into travel with Exodus Travels where I worked in reservations, operations, and sales, I led tours in Tuscany and helped design a Cooking in Tuscany tour. In later years, I returned to Italy to run a farmhouse with apartments, B&B and direct sale wine cellar, before venturing to Australia.
Now ensconced in Brisbane at Back Track Adventures for over 8 years, I have rekindled my passion for food, cooking and research for the best ingredients, which are at the heart of my Italian Food adventures.
