About mE

Prologue:

My name is Sophie Grigson - mother, food writer, cookery teacher, cook.

9.52 pm 30th May 2019: I am now homeless.

Almost everything I own has been squeezed into my car, and I am about to head south, to Puglia, Italy’s heel, to find a new home.

For decades I have loved visiting Italy, loved the food, the people, the architecture, the ruins and the sun. The North of the country is often magnificent, but the South…. The South has its own unique grandeur, wild, parched and arid in the sharp heat of the summer, both rawer and drenched in the influences of all the conquerors who have come, coveting land and coasts.

The Story Begins:

18:32 10th June 2019: I move into my new house, in the small town of Ceglie Messapica. Now I’m here in the deep south, trying to put down fine thread roots to hold me here. I’m heading into the seventh decade of my life with this big adventure, savouring the semi-known and the unknown, making  new acquaintances who may become new friends, missing the certainties of my old life in Oxford, but relishing the little discoveries and grand revelations of a new daily life.

This blog is a series of notes, reflections, discoveries, enthusiasms and, occasionally, dismays. Food and recipes have been my living for most of my adult life – so of course they will loom large. Life here has more to offer than the next meal, however good it is.

A big thank you to Sid Black for setting up this blog for me.