Dine with Daniele and Lucy Knott

(Author and Former Wrestler)

First of all Auguri on the release of your first book How to Bake a New Beginning! What inspired you to tell this story?

Thank you so much. Love very much inspired this story. Love between two people, love between families and love for what you do in life. Sister’s Amanda, Sabrina and Louisa have a special bond and with them being Italian, there’s a lot of passion in this book and joy in celebrating people, food and dreams.

What were some of the biggest challenges you encountered while writing How to Bake a New Beginning?

When I first started writing it, I had no idea what I was doing, so I think back then it was just getting myself to focus and get the words on the page. By the time the editing process came about I was dealing the real-life loss of my Grandad, so it was very difficult to suddenly know the pain that the girls in the book were experiencing. I had to take a bit of a step back when somedays the emotions made it a little hard to write. There are little challenges every day when writing, but it’s just been about not giving up, battling through the days when you don’t like your writing or when the words aren’t coming to you and embracing the days when you love it all and writing makes you want to do a happy dance.

How to Bake a New Beginning features a number of recipes, which one is your favourite? 

That’s a very tricky one. There are a lot of recipes taken from mine and, my sister, Kelly’s cookbook that we have been working on over the years with our Nanna and Grandad, so I honestly love them all. But if I had to pick, I’d say Pizza. It’s amazing and the memories that come with it always make me smile. Also, it makes my leading ladies in How to Bake a New Beginning smile too.

 From the book title and your blog The Blossom Twins which you share with your sister Kelly, it's evident you have a real passion for baking and all things Italian, where does that passion stem from? 

 Quite simply, our Nanna and Grandad. They are Italian, and they mean the world to us.

Tell me about your Italian heritage? and what are some of your fondest memories growing up with an Italian family? 

 Our Nanna is from a small village along The Amalfi Coast called Praiano and our Grandad from Vettica. They moved to England around fifty-seven years ago, where they had our Mum and Auntie and Uncle. We were fortunate to visit Italy growing up and we always loved it. We used to go out fishing, help pick fruit and go shopping, help cook the fish, all in-between running through the olive trees in our underwear, we just felt very at home in Italy when we were kids. That never really left us and the older we got and the more we learnt about our family, the more stories Nanna and Grandad told us, we just grew to appreciate it more.

 Our fondest memories are cooking with our Nanna and Grandad. We just love being in the kitchen with them and then all sitting round the table together to eat and laugh. We felt it was so special when we got to make Italian treats or have different traditions at Christmas. We felt lucky that we got to eat Pandoro and make chestnut pastries with Grandad, we would get so proud telling our friends. Really, every day spent with our family is a fond memory.

 What is your signature dish or dessert? 

 That’s a tricky one. Some of our Grandad’s specialties were cannelloni, steak Diane, meatballs, pizza and that’s just to name a tiny few. I’d say I’m very good at meatballs and take after Grandad when it comes to making them, as well as homemade pasta. Ooh and we make Pastina at least twice a week. We love making Zabaglione at the moment for dessert, which is our Nanna’s specialty and you can’t beat Zeppole fresh from the pan.

Is there a dish that encompasses your childhood? 

 I’m going to say Mussels with breadcrumbs, ooh but also stuffed Artichoke and definitely pizza. It’s so hard to choose, but these dishes, and the rest, would make us squeal. The minute we stepped foot in Nanna and Grandad’s house and smelt these dishes cooking we ran straight to the kitchen. We would ask Grandad all the time for Mussels in breadcrumbs and his face would light up when we devoured them. And making pizza always turned in to a party, that made Grandad happy. That was childhood for us, always round the table or in the kitchen making or eating something. 

 What is your absolute favourite dish and why? 

 Possibly stuffed Artichoke, one because of the above, how we would squeal and get super excited when Grandad had made them and two, because our family in Italy would often send them to us, so it would be like a family affair to have the best Artichoke around. Everyone would be so happy and grateful to receive them and then cook them that it was just magic. And no one makes stuffed artichoke like Nanna and Grandad, talk about delicious!!!

 What are your three must have ingredients that you always have in your kitchen? 

 Yeast, because you never know when you might just want to whip up Pizza. Plum tomatoes for making sauce and Garlic and celery. I cheated there, but Nanna can make anything taste amazing and so full of flavour with these two small ingredients.

If you could dine with anyone living or passed, who would it be and what would you prepare? 

 That would be my Grandad. He passed away last year, and I miss him terribly every single day. My sister and I had been living in America for quite some time, but we would always send pictures of his recipes that we were practicing, across the pond. He would get so excited that we were cooking. When we would come back and visit, we would try and make the dishes he taught us, to show him that we could do it but there are quite a few he never got to try that we were really proud of being able to make ourselves from scratch. 

 So, I would want to prepare everything from Pizza, Gnocchi, Zeppole, Pastiera, Meatballs, Mussels in breadcrumbs, homemade spaghetti, cannelloni, pancakes, I’d want to make it all for him so he knew that he taught us well and to let him know that we will continue making his dishes, because there was no better chef than him. Nobody put love and passion in food the way he did.

Before you got into writing you were a professional wrestler, what was that experience like? 

 It was a fantastic experience and an absolute dream come true. I had loved wrestling since I was twelve, along with Kelly, and it was amazing to be able to live out a childhood dream. There were so many awesome moments, from wrestling at Wembley arena, appearing on A League of their Own, to doing British Bootcamp and learning from the likes of Rip Rogers at OVW in Louisville KY. We loved training and met so many wonderful people through wrestling. I will always be grateful for that experience.

Most people say not to mix family with business, but you and your sister are incredibly close from being wrestling partners to sharing a blog, how would you describe your relationship and what makes it work? 

 I think we are each other’s biggest cheerleaders in that we both support each other and want to see each other succeed. We always loved being a tag team in wrestling and we always say that that was so special for us and it worked because we didn’t want to outshine each other, we are team players. We’re also not afraid to tell each other when we can be better or do better. We are honest with each other and I think that’s why it works. Plus, we genuinely love hanging out with each other and getting to create together. We motivate each other and love coming up with ideas and thinking of how to make them happen.

What are you working on next? 

I will have two more books out next year with HQ Digital UK, so they are keeping me busy. I’m very much enjoying working on them.We’re having a lot of fun with our blog and Instagram at the moment, sharing more and more recipes, which we love. So, just learning as much as we can and practicing our recipes for our Nanna and Grandad cookbook.