THE JOURNEY INTO TASTE BEGINS WITH THE SCENT

A day with "A gipsy in the kitchen"

FEBRUARY 2024 - SCENT

Source IG @agipsyinthekitchen

We are located in a rather secret bohemian corner of Milan, very close to the Ortica district. You can breathe the air of home, art, conviviality. Alice welcomes us in her home full of objects among which stand out the kitchen ceramics of a well-known French brand … Let’s meet Alice, a digital creator by the name of @agipsyinthekitchen.

 

Before working online, she worked for ten years as a press office and communications and events manager. When she decided that that world no longer belonged to her, then she gave a chance to her true passion, which is to write about recipes, to write about her life experiences, travels and emotions. She firmly believes that what a person experiences as pain will one day be useful to someone else and become a survival manual.

The best way to learn is to see someone at work and observe every detail The best way to learn is to see someone at work and observe every detail
The best way to learn is to see someone at work and observe every detail The best way to learn is to see someone at work and observe every detail

« The first thing I created was the blog, I was among the first examples of the food blogging and food writing phenomenon in Italy together with Chiara Maci and Gnambox. On tiptoe I then published my first book entitled “Recipes from the Heart”, an emotional journey, a walk in Memory Lane when I lived in New York. The pages are about my childhood, about the women in my family. It’s a story that touches the most intimate and private chords, a sort of pretext to mention all the foods that comforted me, especially when I had my heartbreakings. And when your heart breaks, you need comfort. Later I met Alessandro, my ex-partner, as well as the father of my daughter, with whom I began to collaborate in terms of photography and video. We started to set our lives on a slow living, slow travel lifestyle, and we started the “supper club” format in Italy, precisely because we had returned from a trip. I said to myself: why not give it a try? So I adopted my dogs and kept writing. I wrote down everything, even about the difficulties in having my daughter. Because I’m a big believer in sharing. Above all, in the sharing of truth, which is also made up of negative experiences. Obviously, every thought is accompanied by recipes, because I have always had a great love for food. I have never pretended to be a chef, a blogger, who bestows the secrets of the most prestigious cuisines.” Alice’s recipes are recipes of comfort food, of food that embraces, consoles and makes you rejoice. A cuisine that pampers. And above all, recipes that can be replicated without a lot of preparation. Everything is about her life and involves the people she loves and are close to her including the dogs Baku and Brie, like cheese.

Source IG @agipsyinthekitchen
Source IG @agipsyinthekitchen

Among the key events of his career, he still remembers when he participated in “The Cook’s Test”. This experience has taught her that simplicity is the fundamental ingredient for success, her beacon and point of reference. 

However, she does not lack an eye for internationality and if she had to choose a city she would choose Paris, where she also spent part of her “previous” life, which also gave her the bohemian style that characterizes her. Legend has it that it was conceived in the City of Light and one of its favorite recipes comes from the French capital. «I share this recipe with my friend Arianna, founder of The Meraviglia: it’s mashed potatoes with truffles accompanied by a Kyr Royal from the Hotel Costes. It’s a tradition of ours, even in Saint Tropez with 40 degrees in the shade. »

 

It often happens, she tells me, that people mistake her for a Parisian. Maybe it’s because of her bangs, her red lipstick, the way she dresses. French girls in general have that extra gear, that irresistible pout that they would love to be able to replicate. So much so that she got a croissant tattooed on her arm.

“I love them so much that if I replicated the recipe, I wouldn’t be able to reach the levels of perfection of boulangeries.”

Among his primary inspirations is his daughter and all the women in his family and work team.

Source IG @agipsyinthekitchen

For Alice, the wonder is to find the extraordinary in the ordinary, to be able to make every daily detail magical, from the cappuccino in the morning with cinnamon, to the chamomile in the evening. But his wonderful recipe is pasta with tomato and basil. In its simplicity it encompasses all the senses. It grabs you with the intense scent of fresh tomatoes, freshly cut basil, lightly frying onion, garlic blanching in oil. The secret ingredient is lemon. From hearing, to touch, to sight… You can hear the sounds of sautéing and then there are the colors. Like the red of the sauce, the green of the basil… And finally, when you drain the pasta and plate it, you feel all the crunchiness and wonder of the flavors.

 

Together with striped t-shirts and red lipstick, pasta with tomato sauce is immediately a source of happiness. When the warm weather arrives, the scent radiates into the air because you open the windows and around the street you can smell the sauce frying. Coma Cose also sing it: “Stay here and burn me slowly / Like basil in the sun / On an Italian balcony”.

When thinking about the future of cooking, Alice imagines it to be vegetarian, with multiple vegan chefs with Michelin stars.

 

“If we all had a home chef to cook vegan for us, we would all be vegan. You wouldn’t even feel the need for dairy. »

 

He then leaves us with a banal and didactic, but real, piece of advice: stay true to yourself, without telling lives that do not exist. The present is always more interesting than fake artificial realities, made for the camera’s sake.

by Alessandra Busacca
Source IG @agipsyinthekitchen
Source IG @agipsyinthekitchen