Michela Chiappa
Michela Chiappa is a Welsh/Italian Cook, Entrepreneur and Presenter of More4’s Made in Italy: Top 10 Classic Dishes and Channel 4’s Simply Italian series. The accompanying book to the Simply Italian series was released in April 2014.
Michela, with the help of her Italian family showed viewers the family secrets of how to make fresh pasta, starting with the simple recipes of how to make the dough and finishing the series with more complex dishes such as Uovo in Raviolo (a poached egg inside a fresh pasta parcel). The show was a great success and converted people’s opinions on the simplicity of fresh pasta.
Growing up in the Welsh Valley’s to Italian parents, Italian traditions are an important way of life and cooking is at the heart of Michela and her sister’s upbringing. Italian being their first language, the Chiappa sisters were involved in the kitchen as soon as they could walk and talk. There might have been some cracked eggshells in the mix or flour on the ceilings, but at the Chiappa household knowing how to cook is as important as an education.
Now Michela has learnt to juggle her career and full time job whilst maintaining the values and traditions of the Italian household. Passionate about the importance of fresh, wholesome, home cooking, Michela likes to demonstrate how anyone can juggle fresh home-made food with a busy working life.
Alongside, her full time as a sports marketing consultant Michela also runs an Italian Coffee Shop and Pizzeria with her husband, The College House, in Cardiff www.thecollegehouse.co.uk. The College House is Michela’s way to show people how a REAL cappuccino should be served (just like they do in Italy, not the Starbuck’s bucket) and her husband Dan went to Italy to learn how to make fresh Italian pizza and focaccia for tasty homemade snacks.
Alongside the TV series, Michela and her sisters have recently launched cookbook ‘Simply Italian. The book is full of their family recipes and traditional recipes handed down the generations from the Emilia Romagna region in Italy.
TELEVISION:
2014 Win It, Cook It (Guest judge) Plum Productions for Channel 4
2013 Made in Italy: Top 10 Classic Dishes (Presenter) Fresh One Productions for More 4
2012 Simply Italian (Presenter) C4
ONLINE:
2013 Jamie’s Food Tube (contributor) YouTube
2012 The O2’s Guru: Christmas Apps Video (Contributor) YouTube (over 400K views)
WRITING
2014 Simply Italian (Author) Penguin
www.facebook.com/TheChiappas
@TheChiappas
http://scrapbook.channel4.com/experts/michelachiappa