Pasta Bench grew from years of cooking, travelling and learning.

Italian food has been a long-standing obsession of mine. Over many trips to Italy, I learned the language, explored its history and culture, spent time in smaller towns and the countryside, and took every opportunity to learn from the people who cook there.

Back home, I kept experimenting — with different ingredients, flours and techniques. I took cooking courses and worked to get as close as possible to the flavours and textures I remembered from Italy, while learning how to work with ingredients available here.

Pasta became a particular fascination. Different shapes call for different doughs and different ways of working them — bronze-die extrusion, rolled sfoglia, the traditional mattarello, and pasta shaped one piece at a time by hand.

But for me, cooking has always been about more than technique. Few things are more rewarding than seeing family and friends gathered around the table, enjoying something I've cooked for them.

Pasta Bench grew out of all of this — a love of Italian food and culture, years of experimenting and learning, and the simple pleasure of sharing good food around a table. It is a way to share the pasta I love making, produced in small batches with care and attention to technique.