The Difference Between Cooking in Italy and the Canary Islands

When people talk about cooking, they often think that simply changing location means doing the same things in a different way.

That's not how it works.

When I arrived in Lanzarote, I quickly realised that I couldn't simply bring my Italian cooking to an island and expect it to work.

The ingredients are different.

But above all, the whole context is different.

In Piedmont, I was used to having a consistent supply of ingredients.

I knew exactly what I could find, when I could find it, and what quality to expect.

Here, it's different.

Here, you have to adapt.

You can't always find what you're looking for.

And even when you do, it isn't necessarily the same as what you're familiar with.

At first, it was frustrating.

I tried to recreate dishes that had worked in Italy, but they didn't have the same balance.

Something was missing.

Over time, I realised that the problem wasn't the ingredients.

It was me.

I was trying to impose a style of cooking that didn't belong to this place.

Lanzarote forces you to change your approach.

It makes you work with what you have, rather than what you want.

And above all, it teaches you to respect the place you're in.

I started observing more.

Understanding local ingredients.

Working with different flavours.

It wasn't an immediate change.

But it was necessary.

Because that's when I began to build something more authentic.