Hedy Taranto

With her Neapolitan mother instructing her as she stood on a step stool to reach the stove, Hedy Taranto began a life-long passion for recreating old-world Italian recipes that seem to be a “cure-all for everything”. Her book Mangia, It’s Good For You! How to Cook Like an Italian for the Holidays, showcases the old-school Neapolitan recipes her mother and aunts taught her when she was young, as well as the Sicilian recipes she learned from her grandfather. They were the recipes cooked every day, on Sundays, Thanksgiving, Easter, and during the Christmas holidays.

Ever the sweet-lover as well, Hedy was assigned an apple pie to bake in her sixth-grade home economics class. When it was clear that her apple pie was a hit with the entire family, Hedy realized that she could also bake well. It became even more evident after that when her mother would ask her, a mere 10-year-old, to bake for her…..the rest is history.