Silvia Bianco
Chef, Teacher, Writer
Most know me as Chef Silvia because I’ve been a professional chef since 1993 when I opened my former restaurant, Biscotti, in Ridgefield, CT. But what most do not know is that I’ve been writing since I was a teenager. I used my writing skills to communicate and stay connected to my former restaurant patrons in the form of a note I inserted into the restaurant menu each month for years, resulting in a series of essays known simply as, A Note from the Chef. I thought that if my customers were going to eat my food, they should know something about the person preparing it. The “notes” allowed me to nourish my patrons not only with good food, but with my musings on food and life that I found helpful and felt honored to share. They played an integral part of the community feel of the restaurant for almost 10 years. I brought the “notes” online in 2004 first as a part of a newsletter and later as a blog I continued to write through 2014 and then only occasionally until 2017 when I went onto other projects…but I’ve never stopped writing. Below is a link to the notes and below that, some of my favorite notes and other articles published on Medium.
Blogs
Articles
Mise En Place: Creating Space for What Really Matters
Imagination–the Space Between What Is & What Could Be
We’re Always Manifesting (Even When We Think We’re Not)
13 Habits for a Peaceful Life I Learned in the Kitchen
“Most good cooks are masters of the art of reinvention. Why? We have to be. In the kitchen, we quickly learn to expect the unexpected so we also learn how to adapt and find another way. As it turns out, this is a good thing to know if you want to live a peaceful life. So this peaceful kitchen warrior can tell you this…”
The Real Reason We Need to Eat
“One day we noticed that the fog that once clouded our way began to lift and when it did, we rediscovered the joy, the healing, eating together brings. The nourishment that we crave, we soon learned, comes from preparing and sharing a meal even more than the food itself.
Eating, we realized, is Nature’s way of ensuring that we play together, tell our stories, listen, cry, and laugh with each other while we sit at the same table.”
Book
Simply Sauté: Fast, Easy and Health Italian Cooking — All in One Pan
13 Habits for a Peaceful Life–I Learned in My Chaotic Kitchen (upcoming in June 2026)
Sales/Landing Page
Tag Lines
Chef Silvia on Facebook: Food and Ideas Worth Chewing On
Chefsilvia.com: Cook, Eat Connect
Cooking/Health/Wellness
Substack – Worth Chewing On – latest writings
MindBodyGreen.com – Various articles and recipes
The Huffington Post – Various articles and recipes
Food411.com – Ask Chef Silvia (cooking advice)
