I Can’t Cook!

Odd as it may sound, I learned a lot of what I know about myself and design from being a total failure in the kitchen.

My flare for drama comes from being the youngest born to an Italian family. From a strictly DNA perspective my sisters and I are a mixed breed. However to my spunky grandmother, Angelina, we are 100% Italian.

When they came over from Naples, my family split into two sets–half went to Manhattan, the other half to the backwoods of Connecticut. The latter is where I spent most of my time, traversing sprawling farms and blue collar towns until I went off to college. The NYC crew established neighborhood restaurants serving up Italian “peasant food”, while my parents built a restaurant of their own in Connecticut.

I spent countless hours in my parent’s restaurant alongside Cheech, the head chef. Cheech didn’t speak a lick of English, but when it came to my cooking affliction it wouldn’t have helped matters if he spoke the queen’s English! I was all thumbs in the kitchen. I eventually discovered that I CAN cook a meal when I follow a recipe. I started Room Recipes from that experience because I think many people have similar insecurities about their ability to design and style their own homes.

My infatuation with design was also ignited by my experience in school. While I had no patience for math and science, I could spend all night tinkering with interior design drawings and furniture catalogs. I love design. Plain and simple. I started drawing elevations at age 7, but it took a while for it to occur to me that interior design could be my life’s work. After years of searching for my professional identity (including a stint in law school and an MFA at the Actors Studio), I finally got to Parsons School of Design to study and hone my craft.

So all that time in the kitchen taught me many things—most importantly the rewards of hard work, dedication and passion. But it also taught me that no one can create a masterpiece alone. On my HGTV shows I have a crew of talented people and craftsmen that make my drawings come alive. Their expertise make my dreams literally come true. But nothing can prepare you for the long hours, sweat and drywall dust in your ears! Major TV redesigns often happen in a fraction of the time usually allocated for a given project. But when we (and the rest of America) see our homeowners smiles (and sometimes tears) at the end of a shoot, we all feel like rock stars.

Cheech taught me the importance of a good recipe, and I guide people through practical designs and easy fixes. I try to inspire them to do the work with their own hearts and hands. With my lucky gold studded drill and a little bit of spunk, anything is possible.