I’m Elizabeth Volpe. I grew up in a home where good food was, thankfully, a big part of everyday life. My mom, a former restaurant cook, is and still was an excellent cook and baker, and ran a catering company out of our basement kitchen when my sister and I were small. Standing on a stool with a baker’s hat on was something I loved to do from an early age, especially because it meant eating the leftovers from my mom’s famous chocolate mousse cake. I have always, always loved to eat.

While I’ve always enjoyed baking, I was frankly not interested in learning how to cook until I graduated from college and spent time traveling in Nepal. When I came home to New York City after six months to start a job in investment banking, I missed all of the exciting flavors I’d eaten abroad and cracked open the cookbook “Taste of Nepal,” which I’d bought at a bookstore in Kathmandu. From then on, I was hooked. Cooking became a satisfying challenge for me outside my long work hours- an escape and a way to let off some steam.

Since my initial foray into the kitchen ten years ago, my style has evolved as I’ve been able to see more of the world. I’m always planning my next journey (and added a section on this blog to help you do the same) and live for eating exciting new foods wherever I go. At the same time, my cookbook collection has grown (exploded?) and I’ve been able to recreate (roughly) a lot of the flavors I’ve encountered on my travels.

You may be getting the impression from this intro that I have a lot of time on my hands and a spacious kitchen. I have neither. While I finally left my job in banking a few years ago, I have a busy career in financial communications and it’s always a balance finding time to cook and entertain. And I’m on my third kitchen in New York, but somehow they’ve gotten progressively smaller… My refrigerator and oven are not full sized and I have about 16” of counter space that I’ve supplemented with a rolling butcher block. Oh- and my oven runs 50 degrees hot! What I do have is good storage space (for all my appliances and serving ware), a creative vision for the space (a pot rack, homemade shelving over the cabinets, knife racks) and access to a world of ingredients here in New York (and on Amazon!). It’s proof that you can do amazing things just about anywhere, with whatever you’ve got.

On this site you’ll find some old standbys as well as some recipes with unusual ingredients or challenging instructions that I think are worth the effort. If they’re on here, it means I think they’re delicious and I hope you’ll give them a shot!

Thanks for stopping by- and I’d love to hear from you. You can reach me at elizabeth@thekitchenchronicles.com.