Known as BiBi Diamonds in certain circles, some have described her as "pertinent and provocative". Benedetta received  her Masters in Literature from the University of Bologna. She loves watching independent films alone (don't ask her how they are) and she likes writing for the most part (but doesn't really know why). She has a deeply-rooted passion for grammar and high standards when it comes to bread and olive oil quality.

Emily graduated from Yale University with a B.S. in geology. Don't ask her about rocks though, she is interested in climate change and its relationship with food production -- particularly fisheries. She is currently exploring how fishers' knowledge can contribute to our understanding of climate change, interviewing fishers all around Italy. She has milked goats in Vermont, worked with a seaweed farmer in Connecticut, and is skilled in the art of fermenting kombucha. In her free time you may find her crocheting tiny vegetables and tending to her sourdough starter.

Maya speaks Japanese, English, Chinese and a bit of Italian but can communicate with anyone regardless of what language they speak. If you are lucky, you can catch her breaking it down on the dance floor. She is a journalist who has interviewed everyone from oil diggers to presidents. She loves watching soccer and spending her days in the garden, but doesn't know how to make miso.

Sami is our resident blonde Cali surfer chick, a true lover of the sea and really, really super good dark chocolate. She got her BS in Anthropology and Geography from Cal Poly with an emphasis on Nutrition. She might have left her heart in Italia, but in her soul she is a true San Franciscan. Sami is passionate about work that supports local food economies and seeks to make  good food more prevalent and accessible to all. 

Lefty, auntie, and avid Yelper, Esther graduated with a degree in Language and Foreign Literature from the University of Bologna - in English, Spanish, and Hungarian. She grapples with a serious addiction to TV shows, sparkling water, and crime novels. A queen of the Italian kitchen, she lives by the motto "when in doubt, fry". Esther is fascinated by the world of craft beers and also terrified that a dish called spag bol could actually exist somewhere in the world. She sometimes goes by the alias Giopaca, but that's a long story you'll have to ask her about.

Hillary, a jack of all trades, studied anthropology, dance, and international studies at Connecticut College, as well as sustainability at the Earth Institute of Columbia University. Her prior research has been focused on Italian transnationalism in both Buenos Aires and New York, which mostly involved eating pizza and tango dancing. She is a lover of cheese, nature, and meditation, and is in a long term love/hate relationship with Netflix. When not fighting in a dance-off, her latest mission is creating agro-communities in the Hudson Valley where she's in the midst of starting her own community-building cooperative, called the Green Onion. 

Maya received a B.S. in dietetics and recently completed her masters degree in Food Culture and Communications from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. She really digs the way fermentation lets us peek into the relationship between humans and microbes and you can find her tinkering with all sorts of ferments. In her previous lives, she has danced with contemporary ballet companies in San Francisco, worked on organic farms in Japan and Long Beach, and exploded tiny particles with a linear accelerator. She will be interning at the Nordic Food Lab this spring.