We are the Chiappinis. Dad, Mom and 2 wonderful children (don't we all say that?), 2 dogs and a tank full of fish and we Love to Eat!!!

Tony (click here to see his website)- Dad Extraordinaire

Judy - The Lucky Mom

Kyra - Oldest Daughter

Lauren - Baby of the Family

We are lucky enough to live in sunny SW Florida in a medium sized city that we just love.

Tony originally hails from the Butler area of Pennsylvania and has lived here for over 18 years. He currently does Real Estate investing and sells both residential and commercial Real Estate.

I, on the other hand, am from Canada. I was born and raised in a suburb of Toronto (one of my favorite cities in the world!) and found my way here, after trying numerous other places, about 15 years ago. I work for a temporary employment agency so I can have the freedom that I need to have while raising 2 young, active children.

We have been married for 11 years but dated for 4 years before that.

We have both worked in the restaurant business for the majority of our working years. I liked the freedom and the flexibility that it gave me and Tony liked the challenge! I always worked for other people either as a bartender, cocktail waitress or as a waitress. The money was good and the people were great! You will never meet a better bunch of people that the ones that are lifers in the Restaurant Business...you become a strange sort of family after a while. Now, Tony is more of an entrepreneur. He liked to manage and own the restaurants! He always ran the kitchens as the chef. But his background and true passion is cooking. This is why cooking and eating has become such a huge part of our lives. Most of our memories from the last 15 years revolve around eating or what we have served.

We also LOVE to entertain...!!! My job is to clean the house and it's his job to make ALL of the food. He usually starts this a day or 2 in advance (but only because he really LOVES it) and this way he is able to enjoy the party or get together with most of the work already done.

We definitely have a very casual approach to entertaining. Christmas and Thanksgiving dinners are even eaten outside around the pool! No fancy dinner parties for us. Just plenty of great food, bathing suits and screaming children! We love nothing more than a house full of people getting ready to eat. We are able to use the time before the food is ready to stay connected to all of the friends that we might lose touch with during our very busy lives! It is also very important to us that people feel comfortable with us and in our house and the way we do that is by keeping it real casual. Florida is a very casual place to start with but who anywhere is really comfortable at a formal dinner party? 20 or 30 years ago that was popular and expected but do you think that it is a coincidence that most had 3 Martini's in them before dinner??? It was to help loosen up. If you start casual and comfortable this step becomes unnecessary for you and your guests. The atmosphere will loosen them up and they can start relaxing as soon as they walk through your doorway!

We also feel very strongly that food should be very healthy. We like to use a lot of Organic fruits and vegetables, Organic, free range beef and poultry. We feel that making food from scratch helps to eliminate a lot of the harmful and unnecessary additives so most of our recipes do not involve ingredients that come from boxes. This does not make it any harder to cook, just better!

This web site and newsletter is our way of sharing all of our experiences (good and bad) with you! We have made the entertaining mistakes so you don't have to.

Happy Entertaining!

The Chiappini's