Whatever Lisa Corbo chooses to do, she does it with flair. While the Toronto-based retailer, designer, stylist, and influencer is adored online for her fashion content, COVID lockdowns saw her bring a new kind of content to her IG feed; cooking videos.
Whether it be food, fashion or design — the Canadian style icon is a connoisseur of all things Italian. Raised in an Italian household in Australia, many family travels were spent in Italy before later returning to her roots, spending several years working in Milan’s fashion industry. Lisa now calls Toronto home with her husband George, and runs multiple platforms.
We chatted with the creative to discuss her IG series, her love of Italian cooking, and how she connects food and fashion. Keep scrolling.
We loved watching your Italian cooking series during lockdown! What inspired you to share this part of your life?
I’ve always included food in my [Instagram] stories. During lockdown food was a great mental release for me, as it was for many others. I wanted to share my appreciation for cooking, becoming more personal on my social media and bringing my followers into my home allowed them to indulge with me as I prepared dinners for my family.
One Sunday l just decided that, instead of just doing stories about the meal I was making, I would make a video by myself, preparing a dish, and talking about how I was feeling. I got a really huge response and so many DM’s from followers wanting recipes. It was way easier to do a video than actually send recipes through direct messages. Eventually I started being a little more specific with my posts, and found more of a rhythm with it.
How did you develop your love of cooking?
When I moved to Canada, I didn’t have my usual access to my family’s hospitality business. Cooking and food shopping were all so foreign to me! I actually didn’t know how to even acquire a lot of Italian ingredients. [Before] I was never really interested in cooking. I dressed up and dined out constantly, or as my family was established in the food business, it was a lot easier for me to just have something delivered.
In those days, there was no such thing as Uber Eats! So here in Toronto, with no appoggio, I had to get smart. Communication with my mother [back home] was very expensive, it was all through the telephone — landline in those early days! My only option was to teach myself how to cook.
I found I actually love being in the kitchen. Like, it’s not just about the food. It’s about the quality of the food and the way you’re cooking. You need a vibe — as I have a Mediterranean background, Italian, I tend to be very specific about the kinds of ingredients I use, and therefore eat.
Last but not least, when I am in my cucina I need to feel amazing. I’m 60 but I will always love to feel sexy when I cook. It’s essential.
Today I often see a very clean and edited approach to cooking, which is great. Personally, I like there to be a little bit more character.
What’s your go-to Italian dish and why?
I have a great secret recipe for a tomato sauce, shush! I also have my own recipes for a lot of different soups that are classic Italiano with a twist. I have my own private recipe for a zucchini soup, a bean soup and a pasta e piselli (pea soup). I always stock those in my freezer, and we still always run low!
We loved watching you make penne rigate al pomodoro accessorized with polpettone and polpette. What does this dish mean to you and your Italian heritage?
That’s a dish I like to make at night whilst I’m watching TV or on a Sunday, and obviously it includes my tomato sauce recipe. To me, l am a lover of la cucina povera, semplice con gusto, a world of cooking that emphasizes on the traditions that will also make sense in the future. We need to make dishes that we know our children will continue to make. Our heritage is our future.
If you had to bring three DOP, DOC or IGP products to a desert island, what would they be?
Organic Olive Oil, Parmigiano Reggiano, Prosciutto di Parma.
You’re a style icon and we’ve seen from social media that you love to get dressed up when you cook. Can you tell us more about how you relate fashion to food?
First of all, for me personally, I have to feel fabulous. If I’m cooking on a Sunday, I always have to have lipstick on. Like I said, I need to feel sexy in the kitchen.
I have a lot of vintage clothing and I like to get dressed up in it and cook, it actually makes me be more careful in the kitchen.
The vibe when you’re cooking makes up half of the dish. The fashion, the way you present the food, the way you present yourself, even if it’s your own family dinner, these are the things that matter.
Every day is your runway, and that’s how you have to approach fashion and food.
Do you plan to continue your IG cooking series
I think in the winter, when everyone is going to go back into the kitchen. Then I’ll be doing more videos.
Lastly, Pecorino, Parmigiano or Piave?
Definitely Parmigiano.
Add a comment