My Story

I was born in Rome, in a family cheered by my grandmother Claudia's cooking , an Emilian, who spent entire days making puff pastry and other delicious food. I remember, when she was baking lasagna there was so much butter dripping out of that old Zoppas oven.
For desserts there was Grandma Boriska, from Hungary, who delighted us with delicious cakes. Both grandmothers made me a great greedy .

I graduated in Human Nutrition and Dietetics at Navarra University in Spain. Later, I obtained recognition of the degree in Italy as a Dietitian. During University I discovered to have genetic high cholesterol and autoimmune hypothyroidism, which led me to gain weight very quickly. I started to follow a strict diet. After graduation I started working in Milan and then in Rome, in schools as a nutrition teacher and collaborating in public hospitals in Rome in the field of metabolic diseases, diabetes, obesity and kidney disease.

After 13 years of strict dieting, avoing to gain weight in order to keeping cholesterol at bay, there comes a great professional crisis, because I could no longer renounce to sweets, fried foods, pizza, carbonara, lasagna... A diabetic patient of mine threw me an idea, and from that moment on, I could not stop thinking about that. Instead of changing the way I eat, I could change the way I cook. Instead of eliminating delicious foods, I could rebalance the recipes, without changing taste and typical ingredients. It seemed "mission impossible" but I wanted to try because I hoped to loose weight by eating sweets, to lower my cholesterol by eating carbonara. I wasn’t a good cook so I decided to write to all the Italian star chefs to join the art of cooking with the science of nutrition. Only two responded: Gualtiero Marchesi and Massimo Bottura.

Gualtiero Marchesi called me to work with him as head of the nutrition area in his cooking academy, Alma in Colorno, where I've been working for eight years.
In the same year, on December 31, I come out for the first time on TV in the most important National TV News: TG1 at 8pm.

I founded the Association for Nutritional Safety in Cooking, to bring great chefs and scientists together to reformulate traditional Italian recipes. Gualtiero Marchesi heads the committee of chefs, paving the way for many others.

I travelled to Boston to TUFTS University to study Antiaging Nutrition, side by side with Prof. Angelo Azzi, one of the leading researchers on antioxidants. I began teaching Antiaging Nutrition at the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

I started a collaboration with Massimo Bottura, a member of the scientific committee of the Association for Nutritional Safety in Cooking. With him and the University of Parma I carried out an important scientific research on vacuum cooking of meat, published in the prestigious journal Food&Bioprocess Technology.

I met the person who will give a decisive turning point to my personal life and my project: Manager Danilo Pertosa, who will soon become the partner of my life.

The Italian Ministry of Health recognizes the Patronage for my project La Cucina del Benessere per la Sicurezza Nutrizionale nella Ristorazione (the Wellness Kitchen for Nutritional Safety in Catering).

with Danilo Pertosa we founded our Company to spread CUCINA EVOLUTION: the Scientific Method to live long and fit without sacrificing taste and the first Academy in Europe of Culinary Nutrition and Antiaging Cuisine. In the same year my first book was published.

My best seller “Antiaging with Taste” was published by Sperling&Kupfer.

The number of TV appearances intensified, and more and more often the national TV broadcast hosted me as a nutrition expert, in particular hundreds of interventions on TG4, directed by Mario Giordano.

My fourth book, "Cucina Evolution" was published, with 213 quick and easy recipes. A book that has improved the lives of thousands of people.

Michele Rubbini and me inaugurated the first Culinary Medicine course in Europe, in the University of Ferrrara. UNESCO invited me to speak about Antiaging Pizza, immediately after the nomination of pizza as a World Heritage Site. Together with the University of Parma, I carried out an important research on acrylamide, published in the prestigious journal European Food Research&Technology.

I received the Italian Health Award for nutrition. My research on acrylamide is selected for the EFSA World Congress and the SINU National Congress. I started teaching Scientific Communication at the University of Milan Bicocca.

With my husband Danilo I opened in Bologna Libra, the world's first Antiaging Italian Food restaurant, awarded by TheFork as the best healthy food restaurant for summer 2019.

Libra restaurant is named by Corriere della Sera as the best restaurant in Bologna where you can order food delivery, and TG2 dedicates an important TV programme to our Antiaging Food Delivery.
The Bologna ASL medical commission recognizes Libra as a certified gluten-free restaurant. The temple of Cucina Evolution progresses, becoming the ultimate symbol of healthy food.

The prestigious Gambero Rosso guide rewards Libra restaurant with 1 fork, which becomes one of the eleven best restaurants in the fat city for excellence.

My eighth book, co-written with Antonella Pelagatti on the Science of Antiaging Leavening, is published. My story is published in the book Food Heroes, by Fabio Bongiorni. EFSA selects me to be an ambassador and disseminator of scientific truths. International Union of Nutritional Sciences in Tokyo, one of the most important nutritional congress all over the word, invites me as speaker for my research "Acrylamide the carcinogen in your food".
TEDxBologna invites me for a 18 minutes speech, on the 24th September.

My ninth book "Acrylamide, the Taboo Carcinogen," an informative handbook dedicated to the genotoxic process carcinogen, is out. My goal is to spread knowledge of what are the risks and strategies to avoid its formation in cooking, helping consumers and experts to keep acrylamide off the table. On the same topic I am called to exhibit my research "Acrylamide: the carcinogen in your food" at the International Nutrition Congress in Tokyo where I am awarded Excellent Abstract Award from overseas.

The beginning of this year is crowned by the first Culinary Medicine Festival in Europe. In collaboration with the Italian Society of Aesthetic Medicine and the Association for Nutritional Safety in the Kitchen, three days of training between theory and practice of Culinary Medicine took place in Bologna, with distinguished guests including Prof. Rani Polak of Harvard University. The interest in Culinary Medicine is confirmed with the new weekly column within Medicina 33, special tg2, aired every Tuesday at 1:45 p.m. on Rai 2. For the second consecutive year, I am reappointed as ambassador in EFSA's science outreach.