From working as a personal chef and caterer to becoming a cookbook author, Bill Abruzzo has devoted much of his life to mastering Italian cooking. He maintains “Recipes and Ramblings,” a website and food blog dedicated to Italian cuisine, Italian specialty food items, culinary travel to Italy, and farm-to-table Italian dishes. Abruzzo gives cooking lessons for small groups out of his Virginia home and caters local, intimate events. He locally sells his own line of specialty Italian foods, called il Giardinetto Bello, which he uses in his personal kitchen and catering business.
Abruzzo graduated from the University of Miami School of Law and worked at a general law practice before pursuing his passion for food full-time. Growing up in an Italian-American household, he learned how to prepare several Italian dishes early in his life and inherited many foods and traditions from his parents and grandparents. Over the past thirty years, he has traveled back and forth to Italy in order to connect the dots between the foods and traditions he grew up with and the regions of Italy where they originated.
Born in New Jersey, Abruzzo operates a small farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains in Virginia with his wife. There, he grows organic herbs, hay, and Italian varietal vegetables.