My name is Flavio Lagana and I am from Italy, Cosenza, Calabria. I came to Canada in 2007. In Italy I was a soccer player and a swimmer. I was all about sports. Although, I always had a passion for food, for cooking. Most of my cooking I learned from my mom and my nonna, but when I was a teenager I went to cooking school in Roma and Florence, Italy. I learned the old school traditional Italian food. I love traditional Italian food.

My mom she is an amazing cook. She makes fantastic food with whatever she has and the same goes for my nonna. I remember one time when I was young, I said to my nonna, “Nonna, I want become a chef”. She looked at me and said “Ok start”. She opened the fridge and told me to make a meal. I said to her that there was not too much in the fridge. She said “well if you want become a chef learn to work with what you have and create an amazing meal for everyone”.