From Mesa to Messina

A Memoir in Progress

For much of my life, I tried to stay invisible while seeing everyone around me.

I learned to read people, kitchens, landscapes, and the stories they carried. I became a chef, a teacher, a traveler, and a mother. And a nana. I built a cooking school and wrote novels about women searching for their histories.

But there was another story waiting to be told.

*From Mesa to Messina* traces a journey through childhood, sibling loss, family secrets, and the unexpected discoveries that followed a DNA test more than six decades after my adoption.

From Pennsylvania kitchens to Boston, the mountains of Colorado, the fields of France, to the Arizona desert and a small village in Italy, it's a story about the families we're born into, the families who raise us, and the places where we finally begin to recognize ourselves.

And, of course, there's food.

Follow the journey through The Whispering Kitchen Archive, where I share stories, memories, and discoveries along the way.