Hi! I’m Graziano, I come from a beautiful small lake in northern Italy, Iseo lake, but since some years I live abroad, first I was in Austria, where I met with my wife Melinda, and now in Hungary 🙂

As profession I am a Wedding Photographer, and together with my wife we are the co-founders of Grazmel Photography, an internationally awarded studio.

But like many other Italians, also good quality food is a main passion, so I decided to start this site to share also this passion with other people…and like many other Italian men, I never cooked (almost) anything until I was living with my mom 😀 but food was attracting my attention always, at least the theory! And looking for more detailed information about the recipes, the history, the traditions and the quality of each ingredient it was always an interesting hobby for me.

I come from a family where almost all the fruit and vegetables come from our field, we always had (always or in different years) our own chicken, hens, guinea fowls, rabbits, pigs, beef, goats, and our own olive trees, and what we didn’t have we mostly bought from trustworthy people in the surroundings. So the quality of the food always mattered.

Then, once I was far from home, I needed to “turn the theory into practice” 😀

I’m also a beer passionate 🙂 but I like good wines as well!

Here you will find different kinds of recipes: the ones learnt from my mom, the ones typical of my region, recipes from other Italian regions, and also some other recipes discovered abroad, especially Hungary where I live now…in few words, what I eat everyday 🙂

Why “Polenta & Baccalà“? Well, polenta is a very traditional food of my homeland, and baccalà is also a very common food, and the 2 words sound nice together, I think …that’s all 🙂 and they are also a very good and typical recipe, of course!

What I look for in every recipe? Taste and good quality ingredients, those make the difference…and no, I’m not counting the calories 😀 I believe that good quality never hurts (with no abuses, of course), bad quality yes. Very synthetically, this is my philosophy about food 🙂 you will not find “magic diets” here: fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, a bit of everything and varying often and seasonally, that will be always the best diet in my opinion 🙂 And between other things, I also like to go running and with mountain bike, now just for fun and to keep a good shape, but in the past I did it competitively for some years and some of my PBs I am proud I have a 34’40” on the 10 km, a 1h17’51” on the half marathon, and a 2h37’30” at the Dolomites Skyrace in Canazei…but those times are gone 🙂

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An ingredient I would choose above all? Sure a good quality extra virgin olive oil (the one produced by my father next to the lake, for example 😛 )…I couldn’t give up to that! With no doubts, it’s the healthiest fat you can use in the kitchen, and I use it almost in everything 🙂 (I repeat, a real good quality extra virgin olive oil).

Things that cannot enter in my kitchen and that you will not find in this blog? Well, I have quite a long list 😀  I believe in the importance of choosing good quality ingredients, it’s important for our own health.

The food is the first and the best medicine for our body, choosing the good quality and avoiding the bad quality can make a big difference, and probably it will reveal to be also cheaper in the long term.