New Series Alert: Baba's Eat Ali

Welcome to this new chapter of Food Republic!

Let me introduce myself briefly.

I take pictures for a living. Mostly movie stills and portraits. I love movies. I also love to shoot what I see around me when I travel, or when I eat. In fact, I love eating. I love food. I love to cook. A lot. I'm pretty good at it, too!

I am no avant-garde chef but luckily I live in Rome, where I get easy access to the freshest ingredients and the ancient wisdom of combining them in the most simple and effective way to create what is known as "Italian cuisine." I always wanted to blend my passions into a single creation and to share them with everybody else. I also thought it would be nice to pass on some of the traditional knowledge I come across in the wonderful and weird country I live in, straight from the source.

By the way, people call me Ali Baba. Or more simply, Baba. Like the fat brood-hen from the movie Chicken Run. Hence, Baba's Italy. Baba's Eat Ali. Got it? Alright.

I am NOT Italian though. I'm Swiss, from a small provincial town known for an international film festival. I moved to Rome about 20 years ago to work in the movie industry. This gives me enough passion to be true in what I do and at the same time enough detachment to keep me from taking sides, as opposed to what all good Italians love to do: turn everything into politics.

I would like to take you through different food areas and give you a bit of background on the origins of their recipes, maybe tell you some stories and from time to time, tell you about places I eat at and cooks that I meet.

I hope you will enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy making it.

Ready? Let's go!

#01-Traditional Roman first courses