Rebecca Stephens

I grew up in Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire, a quintessential English suburban green belt town. After graduating from Nottingham University I worked in marketing in London for a few years. It was fun, but I was young and wanted to see the world. I took myself off to France to work in the mountains for 6 months then hoisted on a backpack to follow a friend around Asia, New Zealand and Australia.

I had only planned to be away for two months but found the easy outdoor life of Australia suited me. I settled into life beside the sea in Bondi (Sydney), beaching, BBQ-ing, brunching and working in journalism at MSN. After seven years living on the other side of the world I began to yearn for a closer connection with my family. So my boyfriend (Sandy) and I decided to move back (via South America) to London. We rented a teeny-tiny apartment in Shoreditch and pretended (unsuccessfully) to be hipsters.

We had dreamed of moving to Italy for many years, so when Sandy was offered a job in Milan in December 2012 we decided to take the plunge. Now I am learning the language, the culture and (of course) about the fabulous Italian cuisine.

In Girl Called Beck (coming soon) I hope to share with you some of the less well known delights, peculiarities and of course, food from this mad, crazy and beautiful country we now call home.

And in other news...I am also on a one-woman-mission to convince Italians that British food isn’t all rubbish on my cooking blog La Cucina Inglese (written in English and Italian...with a few errors possibly!)