About me

Hello! Welcome in "Kitchen in the Sand", my food diary where I record mainly recipes but also good addresses, interesting products and more, all related to the food world.

My name is Francesca, I am Italian and I am living in Dubai with my family: my husband Salvatore and our little boy Ludovico.

I was born and raised in the central-eastern Italy, in a small village between the country side and the sea, then lived for about 20 years in Milan, where first I studied and graduated in Management Engineering then worked as a senior manager for a multinational consultancy firm, travelling a lot both for my job and for pleasure.

My life radically changed when I had my child: after deep reflection, and several changes of mind, I decided to quit my job, to stop in a place and to become a full-time mom. It was not an easy to make decision, but I finally realized that the time spent with the family and, especially, dedicated to a child who changes every day and  every day gives you at least one moment of happiness and fulfillment is immeasurably higher than any job, even if well paid, more than ever if you think you don't have much more to give to it and feel ready to do something different. I had to rethink my whole life, but other important changes were to come.

We lived for a few months  in Turin, where my husband worked. Soon after my husband was offered a position in Dubai so the whole family moved here.  

After settling in this new (for us) and sunny place between the desert and the sea, I decided to dedicate even more seriously to the kitchen. Actually I have always been passionate about good food and healthy nutrition, but now they have become my core interest, first of all because I am in charge of feeding my family and especially a growing little child. But above all that I would like to make a job out of my passion.  I have an idea in my mind (and I hope it can soon turn into a concrete project), but for now I decided to start with my own site. I know there are millions of blog in the world but this one is my space, my playground where to share my idea of good, natural and healthy food, with recipes and more.

What is my idea? First of all I like to make everything we eat at home from scratch, starting as much as possible from raw material. Then I think that both the ingredients and the process make a good dish.

Ingredients must be fresh, seasonal, unprocessed and as much as possible local and grown without chemicals or pesticides. It would be nice to know the origin of anything we cook and eat, this is why I love to visit and talk with producers, shop from farmer markets and get inspiration from what the local environment has to offer. In Italy it was quite easy to find wonderful fresh and local ingredients; here in Dubai it is different, but I am discovering interesting places where to shop. It is important not to remain attached to what we already know and are used to; I have started to replace some ingredients I used in Italy (especially fish) with local ones, and usually with good results. Living in a new country gives the opportunity to enlarge our knowledge about products and food traditions, and I think that the combination of ingredients coming from different geographical areas and cultures can produce great results (indeed many restaurants made their fortune on the so-called fusion cuisine).

With regard to the process, I like to use preparation methods which enhances the natural flavor and taste of single ingredients instead of overwhelming them and, even more important, do not make the final result somehow  un-healthy. This means to use less salt and more herbs or spices,  to substitute whenever possible olive oil for butter (and use as less as possible of both), to prefer cooking in the oven or pan-searing rather than deep-frying, to avoid any artificial flavors and additives.

If you buy flour, butter, eggs, sugar, chocolate, and assemble a cake, you have more control on everything than buying an already made cake. Maybe it takes a little longer but the extra time will be spent well: the quality will be definitely higher and the taste - believe me -  better. For sure the satisfaction will be much bigger, often at a comparable price.

My recipes are all based on this guiding principles. What I make is mainly inspired by my Italian origins and background, but I am also fascinated by other cuisines that sometimes find spaces on our table. Of course I take inspirations also from books, magazines, websites and whatever I find regarding food. But I always put my personal touch, usually to turn the recipe to a more healthy side.

Thanks for stopping here. I hope you will find something interesting to try from the blog and come and visit again.