Chef Alisha Di Benedetto and nutritionist Stefania Del Mastro have decided to combine their skills and deep passion for good food, setting up their own cooking business which promotes healthy eating.
Both having grown up in families of Italian origin, from Sicily and Molise, the two professionals have been immersed in the extraordinary universe of the Bel Paese’s gastronomy since childhood. Alisha was constantly by her mother’s side, curious to find out what she was preparing for dinner every night. Stefania on the other hand, stuck close by her father’s side, the owner of the then popular Bernini restaurant on Sydney Road.
“When my mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I started to assist her in the kitchen for real,” Di Benedetto recounted, “it was only then that I realised how much I really enjoyed making the traditional Italian dishes I grew up with.”
Del Mastro also recalls having always loved cooking, and this interest soon turned into a necessity when her father suffered a stroke that suddenly paralysed the right side of his body.
“I had to learn to cook to help my parents, but I wanted to do it mainly because I knew how much my father loved his job,” she explained.
“I think, however, that I have always been fascinated by health and nutrition. In fact, I remember how, as a teenager, I absolutely wanted to transform my father’s way of cooking; his recipes were always loaded with butter and oil. That need then evolved into my profession.”
Today, Alisha Di Benedetto runs her own cooking website, “Cooking with Alisha”, trying to “combine traditional Italian gastronomy and integrate it with different cultures to show how it is possible to experiment with ingredients and how much fun it can be”, while Stefania Del Mastro is busy with her work as a nutritionist.
United by decades of professional experience and a similar family upbringing, the two professionals recently started the ‘Stefania & Alisha’ project and released their first publication, also available digitally, Pasta The Carbs.
“We want to break down the stigma surrounding certain foods, eliminate stereotypes about pasta and the idea that it is unhealthy to eat it. Instead, it is important to incorporate all foods into our diet in order to have a balanced lifestyle,” Del Mastro explained.
“It is obvious that we need to include carbohydrates in our diet in moderation, but about 85 grams of pasta can only do you good. It is only excess that damages our diet.”
Pasta The Carbs is already available and includes 22 original recipes, accompanied by cooking instructions, artistic photographs and nutritional information.
“Pasta is obviously the main ingredient of every dish: from lasagna to puttanesca, from cannelloni to linguine with prawns and lemon,” Di Benedetto added.
“Because pasta is part of our food culture; it is undoubtedly delicious and should absolutely not be eliminated.”
