Seven Years of Blogging, Four of Podcasting

7 years of blogging

Hi! Here I am celebrating seven years of blogging and looking back at the past 12 months, as I do at this time every summer. Thank you for reading this post. Your choice to dedicate a bit of your precious time to me and to my work is humbling and makes me proud to be a blogger!

So, what happened in the last 12 months? The podcast Thoughts on the Table continued to be my main focus and has become a great passion. I enjoy every aspect of it, from the planning stages, through the ever-exciting moment of the recording, to the post-production and its magic. But among everything, I especially love the fact that the podcast allows me to work together with amazing people around the world and meet them face-to-face on Skype. In the last 12 months, I published 12 episodes with new and returning guests, including food writer Mark Preston, food bloggers Linda (Signorina Spaghetti) and Ale Gambini (A Queen in the Kitchen), restaurateur Simon Pagotto, as well as travel blogger and storyteller Nick Zingale, who has quickly become a recurring guest. This year, the podcast also hit an important milestone, its 50th episode! For the occasion, I was joined by my buddy Jason (with whom I started this series four years ago) for a special episode dedicated to balance in food.

Celebrating seven years of blogging with my new friends at The Happy Herd Sanctuary in Aldergrove, British Columbia
Celebrating 7 years of blogging with my new friends at The Happy Herd Sanctuary in Aldergrove, BC.

The series has since hit 59 episodes, and still counting! I have already started working on new outlines with future guests and I look forward to organizing many more. If you’d like to be on the show, I’d love to work with you on themes that you find meaningful — please contact me for more information. BTW, the podcast is now available on Google Podcasts and on Stitcher, besides of course iTunes, and direct playback on the Internet Archive and on this blog.

In other news, this past year I have posted three new recipes: Buckwheat Gnocchi with Mascarpone Tomato Sauce, Mascarpone Cream as the perfect accompaniment to Panettone, and Piadina Romagnola, the iconic flatbread of the Adriatic region of Italy.

Mascarpone Tomato Gnocchi Mascarpone Cream on Panettone Piadina Romagnola

I also wrote an autobiographical article on my first impressions as I arrived in Vancouver, Canada, 16 years ago, to discover a whole new culinary world: An Italian in Canada – From the Food of Italy to “Italian Food.”

“ I had discovered a parallel universe! A pretty unappetizing one […] the portions were too big, the pasta was either drowning in sauce or looked pale and overcooked, and the sauces looked overly rich.”

Finally, I’d like to thank all of you who follow me on the various social networks. Thanks for joining the discussion and for helping me preserve authentic, continental Italian food and its main qualities of simplicity, balance, and flavor. If you don’t already, please follow me on Instagram (where I also share my recommendations for good food in Vancouver or in Italy, and occasional pictures of my gorgeous cat); Facebook (where I sometimes take a provocative stance against the horrible Italian food aberrations I come across); Twitter (where I occasionally also share random thoughts of some wit); and of course on the blog itself, Disgraces on the Menu.

As always, your feedback is really important to me — if you have any corrections, suggestions, or ideas for future collaborations, please contact me! Thanks again.

Paolo Rigiroli

Author: Paolo Rigiroli

Now based in the UK, Paolo is an Italian who lived in Canada for nearly 18 years and blogs about Italian food and its many aberrations.

14 thoughts on “Seven Years of Blogging, Four of Podcasting”

  1. Congratulations, Paolo! Seven years and we are both still at it! I have to admit, I have a backlog of podcasts to hear, but I will get there! Time always seems to get away form me. I will listen to all, though, and especially enjoyed your interviews with Francesca Montillo and the first one I heard with Nick.

    1. PS – I would love more recipes this year, as I have made several of yours and always love them for their authenticity! By the way, we were watching a Bollywood movie the other night (“Queen”) and the young heroine goes to an Italian restaurant in Amsterdam and orders Pizzoccheri! We have made – and thoroughly enjoyed – that several times, thanks to you!

      1. You’re right… It’s always on my year’s resolutions list. Truth is, I worked on new traditional recipes, but I still haven’t mastered them enough to be able to talk about them. But I think that your message will act as a motivator – we’ll see :).

        Pizzoccheri in Amsterdam ordered by an Indian heroine! I must absolutely watch this.

    2. Thanks David! BTW – I’d love to have you back as my guest this coming year. Let’s work on an outline, I’m sure we’ll have lots to say 🙂

      1. You will love the movie, Paolo – although, like the Italian restaurant owner, you will be appalled that she wants to adds burnt ginger and garlic to her pizzoccheri!

        I would love to come back to the show. I had a great time with you and would love to talk more about our favorite subject!

        1. Well, everybody knows that burnt ginger goes everywhere 🙂

          I’m very happy that you’d like to come back for another episode! Looking forward to starting to plan it together.

  2. Auguri per il bloghiversario Paolo! Wow 7 years-that is a long time. it’s been 3 for me and even that seems like a long time. I really enjoy and relate to your posts and podcasts. i am a bit behind in the podcasts….i’ll have to catch up. Ciao, Cristina

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