About Me

Welcome fellow food enthusiasts, I am so happy you found my page! 

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My name is Frankie Giannetti. My goal is to serve as a source of inspiration and education to help you and your family discover satisfying plant-based food options that never feel like you are missing out. I should start by telling you a little about myself and how this love affair I have with food and cooking came to be.

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I was born and raised in Central Illinois to a large family of eight. Growing up I was no stranger to the kitchen. Not that I had much of a choice. Getting dinner on the table for a family of six children and two adults looked more like work at a production factory. Prep work was done in assembly line form, dishwashing was continuous and could not wait to the end, and don’t get me started on the mountains of potatoes needing to be peeled for every dinner. My family also owned several food-related businesses including a 1950's style diner, an ice cream parlor, and a traveling hot dog concession stand. From an early age, I spent hours in restaurant kitchens learning how to prep, cook, and serve meals to all kinds of hungry patrons. This hands-on education both at home and at our businesses taught me everything from how to efficiently chop up a bushel of onions to what truly goes into making a meal people enjoy. Looking back now, it is easy to see how I grew such a passion for cooking and food. 

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Now, I live in Chicago with my husband and have a non-food related full-time job, but I always find myself back in the kitchen.  At times, it serves as my comfort zone, my art studio, or my lab, but most importantly, it is an outlet for my expression. I love hosting dinner parties, a carryover from my service industry days, I imagine.  There is something so exciting to me about planning a menu, then bustling around to get it perfectly timed, plated, and served. Once the food is on the table, I usually sit down, exhausted but satisfied, listening to the laughter and stories of my guests as they pass around my lovingly prepared food.  The meal I worked so hard to make is the magnet that draws us all together; keeping us there longer. 

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While my love affair with food has always been a constant, the menu I serve, and the way I choose to prepare it has evolved over time. Like many of us, I grew up on a typical Midwestern American diet – rib-eye steak, pepperoni pizza, chicken wings, mac ‘n’ cheese, and BBQ. Like any reasonable foodie, I often thought about the ingredients that went into a dish, but I was more focused on how they tasted than where they came from. As my kitchen skills grew, I decided to look deeper into the ethics involved in producing the food I purchased to make my meals, especially when it came to animal products. I was devastated and heartbroken with what I learned. Early on in my research, I realized that I wanted to align my heart with my food choices, and in 2013, I began the transition to a plant-based diet.  I shared my new ideas of a plant-based lifestyle with my husband, and initially (like most of us) he was hesitant.  Even though we both believed in the decision whole-heartedly from an ethics standpoint, we struggled with the thought that going plant-based would mean giving up on the traditions we valued, the meals we craved, and the social connection we associated with food.   

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Knowing I would never be ok with that, I got to work. I began researching new ingredients and testing recipes to reconstruct my favorite meals in ways that retained all their original beauty while keeping animals out of the ingredient list and off the plate. After a little trial and error, and countless taste tests with friends and family, in 2020, I started Frankie G's Kitchen to share what I have learned.  Take some time to explore the page, learn something interesting, and most importantly, try some of the timeless, family-style recipes I have shared. 

 

Enjoy! xoxo

Frankie G.