Truffle gnocchi and biscotti: Nilla Spark is sharing her love of cooking with Albany

Greeted with a big smile and warm hug, you’re instantly made to feel welcome in Nilla’s Kitchen, run from Nilla Spark’s Albany home. A blue kitchen with a long T-shaped bench in the middle suggests the prospect of many guests and creates a warm, family-like environment. Spark is incredibly visual, gesticulating as she talks passionately about the versatility of pasta and creating food and her hopes to create a family within the Albany community. Ms Spark expresses her culture and traditions through her love of cooking Italian food, and she wants to share her passion with the Albany community and beyond. “As I have not been a physical mother, having come from a dysfunctional family, suffered the loss of parents and family, survived and thrived from breast cancer — all I want is to share the love of food and what food can do to bring people together,” she said. Ms Spark had a realisation that it was more than just food she was creating when she invited people into her home and kitchen, bringing back memories and creating new ones. She created a sanctuary within her home where family and friends could congregate, cook, talk, and share moments in their lives with each other. The idea to begin Nilla’s Kitchen started when she hosted former Masterchef contestant and chef Daniel Sharp as a dinner guest in 2010. He loved Spark’s kitchen and said the space would be brilliant for cooking classes. Spark told him to get all the appropriate licenses to operate classes, which he did for 18 months before moving on. When COVID hit in 2020, Spark and her husband John were running a travel agency in Albany which was severely impacted by the pandemic and the resulting travel industry crash. “We had a very successful travel agency, but then, unfortunately, COVID came along and destroyed an industry,” she said. Rediscovering her love and passion for cooking, she ran a teaching class out of an Italian-styled beach villa in Middleton Beach, and classes quickly filled up after promoting the lessons on Facebook. Soon it was too busy for the villa, and Spark moved the classes to other locations before ultimately moving to the comfort of her own home. Ms Spark believes that making food brings a person back to the basics. In a world of chaos it’s a relaxing and meditative practice that nourishes the body and soul. “I love dough, I wish I was joking,” she said. “But I love cooking, you’re able to use all of your senses, and you’re able to use all of the elements. “I’ve had classes with students that have had a real phobia of touching food, but then they really start to get into it and they’re saying it’s the most beautiful thing, therapeutic and relaxing. “You become one with the food.” It gives her great joy to speak of people in her kitchen, learning the techniques she learned from her mother at a young age. “It’s my way of sharing my tradition and culture through food,” she said. “I was born and bred in Albany, but my parents were very young immigrants from Italy. “My mum was 19 when she came out, and dad was 21, they were married by proxy. “Mum came from a family that really loved cooking. “She was 19 when she came to Albany, no family, no friends, no language, and had me within 12 months. “Her way of connecting with the past and with her family was through food. “It was really difficult for her, but she had a natural gift that I thankfully inherited.” Spark related to her mother through her own personal trials in her life. “I wasn’t able to have children, I come from a dysfunctional family, and gone through health crises like cancer,” she said. “I’ve immersed myself in my culture and in my foods, and I wanted to share my tradition and culture through food.” Ms Spark is building the foundations of what she labels an “apprentice Nonna program”, where she arms individuals with the ability to cook fresh pasta, sauces, pastries and other traditional Italian foods over the course of a week. “We’re encouraging and teaching people food skills, communication, connection, and reconnection skills,” she said. “You’ve got to be hands-on, everybody’s at different stages of cooking skill.” She wants people to be able to learn vital cooking skills, offering some a chance to reconnect with their heritage and others the chance to engage and personalise their culture and traditions. Those interested in joining Spark for a class, can find out more via her Facebook page: facebook.com/nillasitaliankitchen