Mambo Italiano

I went there to work when I was 18. When I came back home to NYC I took Italian lessons for six months. I soon gave up the lessons, but this started a pattern for me that would last (so far for more than 20 years). I’d go to Italy, come back, and try cooking what I learned, study the language again, and then go back to my American life after a while. Somewhere in between, I also gained a passion for Salsa music, so being a New Yorker, I would always pop over to Puerto Rico, and eventually I hit Cuba, Spain, and Brazil.  Along the way I amassed a huge Latin/Jazz music library. Still, I always would return back to Italy.

On a particular trip to Italy I fell in love, and I am now married (by fate I guess) to an Italian man from Florence.  My husband, Gabriele, who happened to also love Latin music, is a conga player by profession (and also a cook, writer, and producer). Together we have a daughter, Evelina, who is now almost three. Our family divides time between Los Angeles, New York, and Florence where we are fixing up our 14th century home. We will live there full time one day soon I hope.

My daughter is fluent in Italian; I’m so proud of her. I am of Latvian descent (Riga, on the Baltic Sea), and a first generation American. People always think I’m Italian and Jewish, because I play a lot of these characters in films and TV. Goodfellas was the beginning of this. At one time I tried to get dual citizenship to Latvia, but I would have had to give up my American passport. But now, I’ve finally adopted the country that I’ve always loved as my second home, and will become an Italian citizen very shortly. It has been a long process, but worth the wait. Life there is magical and new for me. It’s nice to have a dream come true.