About Me

Ciao and welcome to Cream Puffs in Venice!

My name is Ivonne and I live in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. I’m from a large family of Italian background and we love our food!

From a young age I watched closely as my mother, grandmothers and aunts created works of art in their kitchens.

During my childhood, I spent several summers in Italy with my paternal grandparents. They lived in a charming house on a hillside where they kept bees, tended to their garden and watched closely over their vineyard and chestnut trees.

Those summers were filled with the most glorious sights, sounds and smells: wild strawberries, rose bushes growing out of the sides of a mountain, my grandmother cooking over a fire, car drives along incredibly winding roads and so many stars in the night sky.

My maternal grandmother also had an enormous influence on me. I stayed close by her side and watched as she made a seemingly endless supply of cannelloni, stuffed eggplant, sausages scented with fennel, the best tomato sauce I’ve ever had and the most delicate and beautiful amaretti.

When I think of food, that is what I think of - home and the people I love.

It’s no wonder that I’ve always loved to cook. Lucky for me my mother was so generous with her kitchen. She allowed me to bake and cook, to try, to experiment, to make a mess … all to my heart’s content.

Then a few years ago I had the good fortune to stumble into the world of food blogs. What a discovery! All of you out there writing and cooking and baking and sharing.

“Could I do this?” I asked myself. “Could I put my journey in food out there for people to see?”

I had my doubts.

And then I read Marlena De Blasi’s “A Thousand Days in Venice” and a little light switched on inside me. What am I waiting for?

So in December 2005, Cream Puffs in Venice was born. Why that name you ask?

Because I would love to be in Venice eating a fresh cream puff and enjoying a perfect espresso. And I’d love to be in Paris eating the perfect croissant. And in Florence … and in New York … and in London … well, you get the point.

And while it may take me awhile to get to all those places physically, there is no reason why I can’t go there in my imagination.

That’s what this is about for me. No more sitting back.

It’s time to make those dreams come true!