From Farms to Flavour: Exploring Heritage through Food with Selena Pellizzari

What if your next meal could take you back in time—and across continents?

In this episode, Paula reconnects with longtime friend and accomplished equestrian coach Selena Pellizzari, whose story weaves together family heritage, global exploration, and rich culinary traditions.

From Ukrainian cabbage rolls to Italian minestrone, Selena shares how she’s traced her roots through food—and how those recipes carry stories of the past.

Together, Paula and Selena reflect on:

🍝 How food and travel have shaped Selena’s Italian, Ukrainian, and Norwegian identity
📚 The recipe book she’s filling with handwritten family favorites, including her grandmother’s special Put Together Cake
❤️ How resilience, gratitude, and connection helped her navigate loss

Whether you're drawn to heritage cooking, family stories, or meaningful travel, Selena’s journey is a heartfelt reminder of how food connects us to those who came before.
 

HELPFUL LINKS

🧳 Get my free Travel Planning Tool
🐴 Check out Selena's company, GP Cottonwood Stables

📝 Recipe for Selena's Great Grandmother's Put Together Cake

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SAY HELLO

In My Kitchen creates connections one dish at a time, by exploring culture through food. I do this through unique culinary workshops, speaking engagements, and of course, this podcast.

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Transcript

Paula Mohammed: Hi, I'm Paula Mohammed and welcome to In My Kitchen with Paula. This podcast is a gathering place for culinary adventures who love to travel. Every week, we'll come together with chefs, cookbook authors, talented home cooks, and everyone in between to talk about their story and their unique dish using food as the vehicle will take a ride into the ins and outs of their culture and country. 

Come on, let's get this party started. 

Hi, welcome back and thanks for joining me at In My Kitchen with Paula. So normally it's all about exploring culture through food and our travels in these episodes. Today something that's been on my mind a lot: all about exploring our heritage through food and through our travels. 

And today we're gonna do that with my longtime friend Selena Pellizzari. In this episode, Selena dives into her rich heritage, discussing her Italian, Ukrainian, and Norwegian roots, and how these cultures have influenced her love of cooking and travel. And how she explored these roots through recipes, dishes, and the stories that her grandparents and her parents shared with her. 

And in a recent trip back to Italy where she met with some Italian family for the very first time. Listen in as we reminisce about Selena's family recipes, global adventures, and the challenges and triumphs of balancing a thriving business with a passion for exploration. 

Let's get right to it. 

Hi, Selena. Welcome to the show. 

Selena Pellizzari: Thanks Paula. 
 

Paula Mohammed: Selena and I have known each other for over 20 years. She's a very good friend. We've worked together, traveled together, cooked together, solved the world's problems together, and I'm really excited to have Selena on the show today. 

Selena, in addition to, one of my dearest friends is a highly accomplished equestrian professional who has dedicated her life to the sport of dressage. As the head coach and owner of GP Cottonwood Stables on Vancouver Island in Nanaimo, Selena has established herself as a leading figure in the industry with a wealth of experience and expertise that is second to none. 

Her dedication and passion for the sport have earned her numerous accolades, including Horse Council BC's 2011 Coach of the Year Award. In addition to being a successful dressage rider, coach and entrepreneur, Selena is passionate about traveling and learning about other cultures. Selena is from Italian, Ukraine, and Norwegian heritage, and has dedicated time to exploring her cultural roots through food and recipes. 

And oftentimes when I finish an interview, the first person I call is Selena to discuss because I'm so excited about what I've heard or what we've discussed. And I know Selena shares that passion. Over 20 years, I've heard Selena talk to me about the dishes from her grandmother, the Ukrainian side, the dishes that she's learned, or recipes that she's explored through her Italian side of her family. And this is why I want to do this interview, Selena.  

So to get us off, before we get into exploring your roots through food and recipes, can you tell us a little bit about what you do, what Cottonwood Stables is all about, and how you came to be doing what you do? 

Selena Pellizzari: Yes, I have been doing Cottonwood Stables , running it here for intensely for the last 20 years. In a nutshell, I grew up here on the family farm, with my mom and dad and my mom's parents, my grandparents, not on the farm, but very close, about a 10 minute drive away. And they spent a lot of time here.  

My mom was interestingly a home economics teacher, who knew really well how to cook and sew, but as I developed and grew up, her interests and her lifelong passion for horses took over. I always joke about side story when I was quite young, I said, oh, Baked Alaska, I'd heard about and asked my mom what it was and she said, oh, remember I made that all the time. Um, and I said, no, no, I've never had Baked Alaska.  

So my mom was quite a good cook, but it doesn't always go hand in hand with spending hours and hours outside on a farm and with horses. I never actually had Baked Alaska that my mom cooked, but she was very accomplished. But my young life was more not in the kitchen with her, it was out at the farm. 

 I grew up here and quickly became quite competitive in my early teen years. I had some fantastic coaches. So came into a competitive stream and also part of learning to be a good rider and horse person was learning how to coach. I didn't actually want to coach or go into horses for a career, so I went off and that's where we met. 

Paula Mohammed: That's right. So you just to clear, you did not want this to be a career. 

Selena Pellizzari: No, I did not. I, I vehemently did not want it to be my career because a, it was in , my hometown where I grew up and, and a lot of hard and dirty work. Even, even right now I'm on my lunch break and I smell like a horse. And it was not in the big exciting cities of the world like Paris and New York and London. I had young girl dreams, of course, of going out and exploring the world, , and all the big places.  

And I think I just, it was all that I knew, so I wanted to explore and see different things. So went off to university, left my mom behind here, and she had then started to grow the riding school. 

Then when I was, I think 30, my mom, was diagnosed with cancer. And so I came back, it's about 20 years ago to help. She was given a very short three months, her prognosis to live. And I came back to help my stepdad and her sort of wrap things up at the stable here. 

My mom rallied and lived for three years, and by that time, in that three years, which was an intense and horrible but beautiful time to spend with her, I firmly took over the riding school and my whole life transferred back here. So I came back to the town I grew up in. And yeah, really, I, I had never left riding myself, but I firmly came back into running the riding school business and coaching. 

Paula Mohammed: So that was when you're 30. I remember that time I was, I'm so grateful I got to know your mom and remember cooking some dinners in their kitchen. I seem to recall you and I cooking dinner for your mom and Jim at one point as well. 

Selena Pellizzari: My stepdad was a, was a good cook. Sort of a basic cook too. And my mom could really pull it out when she wanted to. I remember once as a teenager, well, we had, let's just tell this story too. My mom, after the whole Baked Alaska fiasco, and I guess she could really create, and we didn't starve, but let's just say I hated going into my twenties, pot roast and meatloaf. 

I remember these vividly. My mom would, I guess make them up and throw them in the oven and then go back , to the barn with the horses and they'd overcook and get really dry. And I always thought those two were the worst meals you could possibly have: meatloaf and pot roast until my stepdad came on the scene in my mid twenties and he made a beautiful meatloaf. I said, I, I never knew such a thing could be like this. Anyways, yeah, we were in a bit of a conflict there.  

Growing up and when I came back, my mom's parents were still alive. And, my mom's mother, my grandmother was a, fabulous cook. And she was of Ukrainian descent. She was born here in Canada in Abbotsford. But her mother, my great-grandmother, who I also knew until I was 28, she had got married and had children young. So I knew her until I was 28. She lived into almost 90. And, uh, she was a great Ukrainian cook as well. 

I grew up with, with her style of Ukrainian cooking borscht. We didn't eat a lot of pierogis, interestingly enough, but kasha, cabbage rolls, those were, and still are staples at our families. My aunt and cousin carry them on Easter and Thanksgiving and Christmas. We always have kasha and cabbage rolls, along with the Turkey and the full spread. 

Paula Mohammed: I'm reading a cookbook this morning, prepping for an interview with a guest in a couple of weeks, and it's all about Ukrainian cooking. I need to share this book with you because I think you'll... 

Selena Pellizzari: Oh yes. 
 

Paula Mohammed: I'm learning so much. I had a very narrow perspective, I guess 

Selena Pellizzari: Ah, interesting. 

Paula Mohammed: Just to paint the picture for people, Selena has done extensive travel. So maybe if you could just share with us a little bit of your life abroad, globally, 

Selena Pellizzari: I had big visions in high school of going and backpacking around the world with my best friend at the time, and then mom and dad said, that's great, and how are you gonna pay for it? And I thought, oh, and also, they really wanted me to go to university, so I went straight to university. 

 I didn't actually do a lot of traveling until after university. I got a really great opportunity. My mom, interestingly enough, didn't travel a ton.  

But she was always quite encouraging after I got my university degree, of course. And my mom used to bring in, what we call working students that would come and live with you in your house, sort of like an apprentice, learn how to ride, how to coach, how to run a stable, that type of thing, in exchange for room and board and some cash and stuff and showing them the country. It happens all over the world. I've done it myself as well my mom had one that came from Norway, actually. And it was all under this young girl's incentive. 

This is years and years ago. I was gone from home at the time, but we were close in age. I think I was a few years older. The girl came at 18 from Norway. It was her first after school away from home and she ended up coming, had a fabulous year here and her English improved massively. She always was so thankful for the experience as was her mother because my family welcomed her in. 

And her mother from Oslo was a journalist and just did a posting in Nairobi in Kenya. And when she was posted there, she invited me to come over and spend three weeks with them. I think I was 23. And I thought, no, I can't go because I have to get a job. And my mom and I was really surprised, said, what are you, ridiculous? You'd be crazy not to take this opportunity to go to Nairobi of all places. 

I didn't even know exactly where it was. So I went there. That was my first trip. I think we did three weeks and it was lovely because it was my introduction to the expat lifestyle too. I did not know that people lived like that. Which was very fun. And we were there over Christmas and New Year's. And then after that I just had the travel bug, so I did whatever I could and I was lucky enough to have a great job. That was not 12 months out of the year. So I had two or sometimes three months off to travel, usually November, December, January, something like that. Um, so I ended up doing some really fun backpack trips to where? India. Southeast Asia. Thailand. Malaysia at the time. I went to Peru and Ecuador. And I went back to Africa, the southern part of Africa, down did a little sort of overland tour through Namibia, Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe. They were all backpacking type trips. 

Paula Mohammed: I got to know you soon after that and your travels haven't really stopped. You even lived in Yemen for a short period of time, 

Selena Pellizzari: Mm-hmm. 
 

Paula Mohammed: had different experiences like that. You kind of answered my question, but I was gonna ask you, where did this passion for exploring food and travel come from? 

Selena Pellizzari: When you asked me to talk about this, I'm like, huh, I was thinking about it. Where did it come from? From a very young age, my father has passed away. Both my mother and father passed away, but my influences for this have all passed away. And my mother's parents.  

So my father was born in Italy, but came to Canada when he was quite young with his younger sister. And then his second younger sister was born here in Canada. So they immigrated with my Nona and Nono when he was, I think four or five. Came into Ontario and went up to Northern Ontario, the bustling metropolis of South Porcupine, which is around Timmins. And for the mining up there.  

My dad came out to B.C., which was where he met my mother. And he wasn't, I would say strongly Italian. I mean, my mom did most of the cooking. My dad didn't really cook a lot, just because my mom was more of the homemaker at home, I think. But my Nona, whenever she came over, or when we went back to Toronto to visit the family, the family moved down to Toronto, very Italian. 

 Always would have Italian meals. They'd greet us off the plane with homemade pizza, which was a typical snack. Always would do like fish cutlet, veal cutlet, oh, my dad did always have salad, which was greens, mostly greens and tomato. The tomato was quite important, neither of which I liked as a kid. And oil and vinegar, I remember we had oil and vinegar on the table all the time. And I, as a good Canadian kid, liked thousand island which I think is horrible now. 

Paula Mohammed: Or the red colored Catalina. That's...  

Selena Pellizzari: Horrible. So he would just do straight oil and vinegar, salt and pepper, which is how I love, the only way I have my salad now. I love it. But that, my Italian family would always have that, uh, when we went to visit them too, so very Italian and my Nona was very, my Nono passed away when I was just a year old, so my Nono was very Roman Catholic too, and followed the church and just this sweet little Italian woman and her life revolved around the family. 

 When she got up in the morning, she thought about what she could prepare for lunch and then what she could make for dinner. Oftentimes things were sitting through the day or her dough was rising. She was letting the minestrone bubble on the stove. I remember that a lot. 

That was a big influence. And my dad, my dad was a little bit older than my mother, and I remember very, very young. I would hear him talking back to family back east and he would start off sort of shakily in his Italian because he didn't use it out here in B.C. But then it would get rolling and I always thought it sounded so beautiful. And I always found this quite sad, I begged my dad to teach me Italian. It's very different times now, but I think my dad and his sisters and probably mom and dad were probably mocked a little bit for being immigrants at the time. My dad was born in 34, so this would be in the forties in Ontario, Northern Ontario, when he was growing up.  

We were to speak English and he didn't, I remember I was a chocolate, I still am a chocoholic, and my first Italian word I think was chocolate. Not like papa or anything like that, it was chocolate. But he wouldn't, he wouldn't teach me. We were to speak English and, and just, I think probably in hindsight, maybe a little bit ashamed of it. 

My cousins back there, meh, one speaks a lot of Italian. Um, but a lot of them, I think don't speak it either. I think it was the generation. But I always had this passionate interest and I remember the town where my dad was born. It actually wasn't where they lived, but the hospital that he was born in in Italy. And I thought it was the most beautiful Montebeluna. I thought that was the most beautiful sounding word. I always had it in my head that I would make it one day to Montebeluna.  

I love the family history. I always. Asked, and even though my father didn't speak a lot about it. I guess more living in the present and towards the future, from a very young age, a passionate interest and where he came from and what was it like? 

And I guess I had tasted this food and I remember the first time I was quite young when I had minestrone and for a young kid with all our taste buds alive and vibrant, you don't have it all the time, I didn't grow up with that. I would see, you know, my Nona maybe once a year. To have like this strong different tasting was like a little bit harsh. Now, oh I'd die for some of her minestrone. I don't even know how she made it exactly. And I sat through many times trying to do it when I was 13. I tried to take notes. She didn't measure anything, of course. And her timings were like, oh, when the oil rises to the top and then you can do this. And so mine tastes nothing like hers. 

Paula Mohammed: I never knew you had this interest even as a young child. 

Selena Pellizzari: My great-grandmother, so on my mother's, mother's mother's side, the Ukrainian side, , has, uh, what I, it fascinated me, the story from when I was young, came as a 10-year-old with one sister. The family got broken up because they come from peasant stock. 

So she didn't know the exact area she was from in the Ukraine because of course she came before the First World War. Borders changed a lot over there. I wanted to always pinpoint a town. I knew Montebeluna from my father. We'll get to the Norwegian part in a minute. She came over on the Carpathia, the ship, the Carpathia, which was I think the first ship to take survivors off the Titanic. It was the closest. 

And I, I thought that was the best story in the world. Everybody's heard about the Titanic, and I remember she said she was 10. I said, oh, what was it like? And I wanted her to tell me and seeing the Titanic go down. Well, she was 10 years old and seasick and in the cheap seats, which were way down in the belly of the boat. And all she could tell me was, she said I was very, very sick and, you know, didn't speak English at the time, and was throwing up , and just heard the big horn. She'd say Boo boo. She heard these big horns going off all night long. But I always was fascinated by that as well. Then also, even though it's more about Jewish, but the region, of Fiddler on the Roof. She always identified with that little movie. She would always go, oh, that's like at home. She recognized those people from her area back home from when she was 10 and younger. 

My great-grandmother settled in Abbotsford. That's where my grandmother was born. And we would go and visit her and she would come over to the island and visit us a lot. She lived on a little farm and she cooked all her Ukrainian things. And what I can remember the button best is we would have these all the time, cabbage rolls, kasha, which is a buckwheat casserole. I think the area she was from in the Ukraine was very rocky and buckwheat grows on quite poor soil like that I heard from her. So I don't know. I haven't fact checked that one, but that's what I was told in my family. She made desserts, I don't know, I think they're called kristica, but we'll check it in your cookbook. 

She called them nothings, I don't know if it's a translation, but it's like a, a light thin dough that you just fry in hot oil and then sprinkle with powdered sugar. And she would also do what, I don't know if I've made it for you, put together cake, which is a more like a, something in between a cake and a cookie, comes out cake size, and it's based on sour cream, of course, a lot of sour cream used in it too. 

So it's a sour cream, flour, sugar. You do about eight layers. You bake them like a big cookie, plate sized. And then you layer these together with a cocoa icing sugar and sour cream. It's just chocolatey decadence in cookie form. That's a big thing too that I still do sometimes, and I, it's sticky and it's great for kids and it's, uh, just remember my Ukrainian background. 

Oh, borscht. I grew up on borscht. My, my great-grandmother's borsch was delicious. I can't make that the same either, but... 

Paula Mohammed: You were talking about like the stories of from your Ukrainian side and the Italian side. How those family stories can have such an impact. I just hope that people don't underestimate the stories and the recipes that we hold now to pass them on to the next generation. 

Selena Pellizzari: You were asking me how it came to be. I don't know. I was an avid reader as a kid. I think I loved stories and I loved the worlds it opened up and I think travel, cooking and your family history, and everybody has one, I was just lucky that it was pretty immediate. 

My Italian from my father and his mother, and then my Ukrainian from my mom's mother, and then even my grandfather. So my mom's parents were both born here in Canada, good farming stock. But all of my great grandparents were born, , either in the Ukraine or in Norwegian on my mom's father's side.  

 My grandparents really kept what they knew of their culture alive. So my grandparents were Canadian, born in Canada, but my grandfather spoke broken Norwegian, I would say. I know zero Norwegian except, I do remember one little nursery rhyme that he would do with myself, my brother, and my cousins. He would put us on their knee and it would, it starts out reya reya blanca... Pardon in the accent. I remember that from when I was really little. I think it's something about a white horse and it falls in a muddy puddle, but that could be my grandfather's translation. 

He was born here, so English was his language he went to school in. I think his parents, he would speak Norwegian at home. But he went off to work as soon as he had graduated school. He had to because of the times; it was in the thirties and everything was in English too. I think he was quite proud of his Norwegian history and when he was able to, many years later, when he finally had the money to do so, he and my grandmother, he took her to Norway. They went several times, and visited family back there. I think it was his way of connecting. And after his parents were gone, connecting back with some sort of roots and they would always bring stories back and they would bring little bits. I still have somewhere, a wood carved troll, which is a very classic Norwegian. And I loved seeing those different things. I think it's the stories and the different worlds they open up. And also something about connecting with the people there and finding out the little differences, but then also the similarities which is so fun. 

Paula Mohammed: You were so lucky to have your grandmother, who's from the Ukraine, your grandfather, who's of Norwegian descent. They died in, when you were how old? 

Selena Pellizzari: They both lived till almost 95 and 95 years old. They outlived my mother and father, actually. My mother and father both died when they were 61, relatively young. My mom's parents lived until 95. I was, 42 and 46, I think when they passed away. So I was lucky I had them into my forties and they were fabulous. I was very close with both of them.  

Paula Mohammed: You went back to Italy this past year. You and I talked once about how both our fathers immigrated and neither of them really yelled from the rooftops about their past. And we both wish that they had shared more.  

 When you went back to Italy, was that your first time? And can you tell us a little bit about that trip? 

Selena Pellizzari: It was different. It wasn't my first time. After that I had mentioned that trip to Kenya. When I flew from Nairobi into Frankfurt, I had a little bit of money left over and a tiny backpack.  

That was my first time I went to Italy. So I had it in my head, I had five days on a Eurorail pass. I could start like something like after 5:00 PM that one day, but then use it the whole following day. This was important in maximizing my travel. 

I went from Frankfurt and headed down through Switzerland and into Italy. That was my first time there and I was so excited. It was January. No real plan. The travel gods were with me. I went back with my partner, actually got engaged in Venice, like super romantic. And I went on a girls trip also, not too long ago. 

All very different trips, but Italy is one. I don't, how can you go wrong? The food is fantastic. And there's so much to see.  

Now this September, my cousins all live in and around Toronto area, Ontario. And my oldest cousin, who's 10 years older than me is a retired teacher and she's, she taught French and Italian and has really kept connected with family and reconnected with family. 

And she had always put it out there that if we ever wanted to come, she goes back quite often, that I was welcome to come with her. So my brother and I actually went this past September for two weeks with my cousin and her husband, and it was just strictly really visiting family, with a finish up in Rome where we didn't have any family. And my brother had never been to Italy and I thought it would be kind of neat for him to see some of the big stuff in Rome.  

Paula Mohammed: Just to clarify, so in the previous three times you went to Italy, you didn't visit family, and... 

Selena Pellizzari: No, no, not at all. 

Paula Mohammed: So it's really going back... 

Selena Pellizzari: Yeah, it was really, so it made it a really different trip.  

Paula Mohammed: Tell me about what that was like meeting your father's family for the first time and the dishes, because these will be memories that stick with you now forever. Did food play a role in this? 

Selena Pellizzari: Did food play a role? So I was not hungry ever on the trip. It's almost like there's not enough time to eat everything that's in front of you. And the family was so welcoming. Older generation all in their eighties and then their families as well too. Some of their children and their children's children.  

We arrived, say about 2:00 PM and we had already lined up. One of my dad's cousin Dino, and family had arranged to take us for dinner that night and they took us to one of their favorite little Italian restaurants. There's a few other people in there too, but we walk in the door and there's a "Dino!" and we have a whole table laid out, and then the food just comes rolling in. 

It was really fun because I've been there a few times before and I would say, I don't call myself a foodie. I love to eat. I love to eat and I love food. My brother, who hasn't traveled as much though was really fun to go with because we came in and then they start, and I think they laid out, I'm gonna forget the names, but they had some prosciutto and bread. And then, there was like a thinly sliced pork fat I wanna call it, which sounds horrible and it's so delicious. 

They also had two little raised trays of this flat pizza. And my brother was just going to town on it even. It was all so good. And I had to say just, just like, this is, like, this isn't the dinner. He said, what? Because of course, after that, then they're asking us, do you want salad? Do you want vegetables? Do you want beef or do you want seafood? And we don't speak Italian. I speak very limited and it's a bit painful to go through. My brother speaks nothing. They were, the family was making it as easy because my cousin does speak Italian, so they'd get caught. They were getting caught up in everything. 

To make it easy, they said beef or seafood. And I had lovely fish that came, I've picked the seafood, my brother picked the beef and I think it was like a tomahawk steak type thing. It was just this huge, massive. Everything is seasoned so nicely. And it's all sort of, I guess we would call it here, family style. 

So even the big tomahawk, they slice it off and pass it around and yeah, you can have your own little thing if you want, but a lot of it goes around and they're always making sure you have enough to eat. And I think that's the way of making, they make you feel welcome. 

They toured us around. We had meals at their houses. Some of the family, those family are older, so some of them, if they, one of the cousin's wifes wasn't so well. So they took us out instead. We went, one of my cousin's, Dino, actually strangely rode horses. So we had to go and see his horse who's now retired. Dino's, I think 85 or something. So he doesn't ride anymore, but when he of course found out that what I did for a living, a horse riding coach and trainer, we had to go and see the horse. So it's about an hour north of Milan through beautiful countryside. You head up towards Lake Como and the lakes up there.  

Paula Mohammed: Did you learn anything about your dad that you didn't already know from this? 

Selena Pellizzari: I don't think I learned anything that I didn't already know. My dad had gone back and I hadn't heard a lot about it. I must have been quite young. He had gone back to Italy, I think, only that one time. And so they talked a little bit about that trip because they saw him when he went back then. 

Because my dad was young when he left, four or five, so I think they probably, they only knew him from, you know, the family speaking and letters. And that one time that he went back. Other than that, he hadn't gone back. 

Paula Mohammed: When you travel now, I know you took over Cottonwood Stables, but I also know that you grew the business and juggling that plus your passion for travel. I know you still travel quite a bit each year. How do you do that balance of having a full-time business but yet still making room to have your travels as well? 

Selena Pellizzari: Oh my gosh, isn't that the loaded question? That has been the bane of my existence for the last 20 years. You know what though, isn't it funny how life goes? I would say taking over the business and as anybody who runs their own small business knows time is I think the most precious commodity, is I sort of threw myself into it. I also threw myself into it because I was very close to my mother and going through her journey with cancer and her eventual death, it was three years. That was very hard. And I think throwing myself into work was a probably not very good coping mechanism, but it's what I did. And for the year or two after. I've had some wonderful, wonderful friends and partners who have provided opportunities.  

So I didn't travel very when my mom was sick really. And then when she passed away, I had a lot of people who were very good. And I had a girlfriend from England. This was another one who had been 20 years in the past, a working student for my mother who had lived here for a year and we're still very close friends. 

She was a rider obviously. She came to, to learn more with my mother and she was going to Portugal to a horse festival, a big horse festival that had been going on for four or 500 years, a breeding festival. 

She said, why don't you come? My mom passed away in April of 2005 and they were going in November in 2005. And I remember saying, "I can't, I can't, I can't." You know, you kinda get in that mindset and I probably had good people here who poked me as well. " Yes, yes you can." I don't even know if I went for a week or 10 days, and that was my first reemergence out into travel. 

So I have to say, I've had good friends who provide opportunity, good support of friends and family back here, and also staff. I've been lucky to have at times some really good staff that I can leave things with. Because if I didn't, I couldn't leave it and great clientele too. Very understanding.  

It's amazing when you go through something like that, people's empathy comes out , and probably people saw that I was having a bit of a hard time and gave me little pokes and prods to take that trip. So the Portuguese trip was the first one. I have to also say I have to, though we're no longer together, that engagement in Venice, that fellow that I was with, worked internationally. He worked in democracy development internationally, which meant he had to travel a lot for work. You mentioned six months in Yemen. He got posted to Yemen on a contract and I spent six months of it there with him. 

My stepdad helped back home. I had a fantastic assistant and family living here at the farm that I could leave the business with. And by that time when I went there, I think that was 2007 or 2008 , I had a pretty good reputation with all my suppliers and my clients, so I held the business steady. So they knew that if people had to call for things last minute they could. And so that allowed it to happen too.  

So with that partner, I got to see, live and breathe Yemen, which was fantastic. There's a whole other food that's wonderful. And we would go through Europe to get there. 

We saw a lot of Germany. My partner was German descent. So we saw family in Germany as well, which is a whole other really interesting thing. We stopped and went through the Czech Republic one time . So I had some really great opportunities for travel that I was lucky to get as well. 

Paula Mohammed: When you travel now, I know that you aren't able to go on the six months backpacking trips. So when you go on these shorter trips now, what's your advice to people, because you really immerse yourself in those trips. You're in the culture. You're not just flying by, you're eating the food, you're learning from the people. How do you accomplish that in such a short period of time?  

Selena Pellizzari: Well, let's be real, you know, six months in Yemen was a lot different than my eight days that I did in Andalusia in the south of Spain. So, I mean, time does limit things and there's only so much you can take in. But I would say when we went a year ago to Spain, to Andalusia we made sure not to cover a huge area. We did have to kind of go, go, go. There were some things we wanted to get to see for sure, but we had times for, you know, afternoon, we call it cocktail hour in our room where we have whatever the local wine is or whatever we want to have from the region and just some nice cheeses that we can get from the local corner store or market. 

So taking a little bit of time for that too. And I think the more time you can have the more opportunity you have to stumble into things too. But I think not rushing through and being open to what you do stumble into and the people you meet, of course, and the different things you can see and more time always better. But unfortunately we've got real life at home too. 

Paula Mohammed: And what is it now that you feel you get out of these travels? What is it that keeps you wanting to go back for more, besides the food? 

Selena Pellizzari: Yeah, I was just gonna say, well, great food. I didn't tell you this travel story, so I guess my first, first big trip and this also a very, very lucky opportunity. My parents got divorced when I was, uh, grade seven. My brother was grade five. And it was devastating.  

That was the seventies, and I don't know, in my little world here, there was a few divorced kids at school, but that wasn't, it wasn't supposed to happen, you know? And maybe not as common, I guess, as it is now and not as healthfully talked about, probably. My brother and I were devastated, absolutely devastated.  

As chance would have it, my grandfather's niece, my mom's cousin had married a fellow who was from Cyprus actually, but he went to school in the U.S. and was an economist and worked for the Rockefeller Foundation and he was based in Bangkok. And they had put it out there to family who ever wanted to come and visit at any time. They were always welcome.  

I didn't know at the time, but my grandparents and mother thought it would be a very good distraction for my brother and I. And they took us a little bit early out at Christmas holidays for three weeks for a trip to Bangkok, and we went and stayed with a relative. It was mind blowing, mind blowing for my little, however old you are, 11, 12. 13-year-old brain to go to this completely different culture where they were living. I guess that was my first exposure to expats, with jet lag and that long of a flight. And then they had a maid, could you imagine? And a driver that picked us up. And the maid asked if we wanted to go with her to the market. 

I think it was the day we arrived and we were jet lagged and it was hot. It was December, and we went into like hot, hot heat. I'd never been in that sort of temperature change like that before. And I remember there was all these vividly still cuts of meat hanging in the market. Raw meat with flies buzzing around it. I was just, I was shocked. 

And the taste, I also remember I had had pineapple and papaya before. I had never had that taste like that before. Never. So that really, really stimulated something in me. And again, it was a trip with family. That was my mom's cousin and her husband. I think that whole exposing my young mind to that was amazing. It's just something I've always loved and I find every time I go traveling, there's so much to learn and experience. 

I think that's amazing for a person at any time in life. I think it's amazing for young people if they ever get the opportunity. I think it's amazing as you're heading out into young adulthood. I think it's amazing as us when we're sort of midlife, let's call it midlife, to keep our brains open. 

And I think it did as a young person, it really helped me be open-minded and realize that not everybody lived the same way I did. They really lived different in that market, let me tell you. And I saw some young kids. This is a funny little aside. I had not only braces and glasses, but headgear that I was supposed to wear during the day, and I was a good little 12-year-old and I wore my headgear. I also, I'm quite tall. I'm almost six feet and I grew quite early, so I was very tall as a little 11, what a grade seven or, and I remember the little Thai kids who were my age looking at me, but there was a picture. I probably still have it somewhere of me looking at monkeys and then these little kids looking at me because I had my glasses and headgear and braces and I was like five foot nine. 

Paula Mohammed: Oh my gosh, Selena, I'm laughing so hard right now because I used to have to wear my headgear, but I had the over the head headgear plus the neck headgear and now they don't allow that in orthodontics because it affects the self-esteem so much. 

Selena Pellizzari: Oh yeah. Oh, I was horrified that these kids were looking at me, but it was sort of just really was a big example of how different in so many ways that we were, and these kids, I think it was around a market or something, they were poor Thai kids. And it was, it was good for my little young brain to be exposed to that really early. 

And then I think I credit my mom and my grandparents for talking probably talked a lot to us about it too. I think it's, it's really, really, really good to keep your mind thinking in different directions. 

Paula Mohammed: Keep it elastic. 

Selena Pellizzari: Exactly. The one more thing that every single trip I've ever taken makes me so thankful to be Canadian. I did nothing to be allowed to be born into this country and especially places like that time in Thailand and places I've been in Africa. And many other places, Yemen in the world. We're so, so lucky to be here. So privileged. 

Paula Mohammed: Selena, one thing that's always stuck in my mind, last year I was at your place and I was looking through some of your cookbooks and there was one where you had recipes in it and they were all in different handwriting and I never knew you had this. Tell us about that book. 

Selena Pellizzari: Okay, well this is what one of my biggest endeavors. I have a lot of great ideas and I don't always see them through. I think it's in 2004. I had the idea, it was my grandmother, my mom's mom was getting older. She passed away at 95 in 2016. I thought, she's such a great cook. It's been such a part of my life. All of our big family gatherings, Sunday dinners were at her house and I wanted to get some of her recipes and have her write them down. 

So I actually didn't start with her. It was my friend from Norway and her mom came to visit and got them to write some of them down. I started it after my mom passed away, so my mom didn't write in there,  

Ironically, my grandmother, it took years. I had to leave that book with her and bug her and bug her and bug her about it. And she had it for a year and she finally wrote down a bunch of her recipes, which were great. I love that it's in, when I look at my grandmother's handwriting that I would see on like every birthday card she gave me or every little note she would leave us. 

I love that it's in there. My grandmother was a bit of a like, sort of amateur artist, so she did some sketching in there around the recipes, just a tiny little bit. I love that that's in there and when I look at those, it's like looking at a postcard or a picture from something. It takes me back to the meals that I've had those recipes at, but also other memories because it's in that person's handwriting too. 

I love it. So, I have a few in there, but that's a work in progress. I've gotta keep going. I just cooked from it the other day though, actually it was fun. 

Paula Mohammed: Selena, like I said, I've known you for a long time and I'm sure our listeners can also hear through your voice. You're a very positive, empathetic, grateful, amazing individual. Doing this podcast interview with you, and we're bringing your life into a condensed timeframe, I can't help but think that you've also had a lot of sadness. 

How do you think you came out of that with so much positivity?  

Selena Pellizzari: I mean, I have to credit my parents and grandparents for sure, and they never said this to me, but the way I look at it. I was very, very close to my mom and I think losing her, it's funny because I was 34 when I lost her. So I mean, I was full on adult. I maybe should have learned this earlier. 

When you say, I've had hard things happen to me. I've had some big things, but isn't that what life is all about? And they either happen to you earlier or they happen to you later. As my mom said, when she was sick, we're all dying. She said, I just know with a little more certainty when I am. 

My mother was amazing. She had an amazing attitude. I often say she was the best sick, dying person I've ever met in my life and super positive. That probably came from her parents as well, but she just, I think, was a little bit of that spirit. So I do have to give her a lot of credit.  

She had a pretty amazing life. It was cut a bit short, but she did live to 61. And she had a lot of good things about it too, and very positive. I think that's come through to me and I think you have a choice. You can say, oh, poor, poor me and, and this has happened and my father was also an alcoholic and there's all this stuff that goes with that. 

And I could say, oh, poor me. It's definitely shaped me, for sure. Instead of going, oh, how horrible for me, I feel bad for my dad. I don't know exactly why it was, I have a few and we'll get into that, but like, sort of in his past, I think I have ideas where it comes from and , I just feel so bad for him. 

I feel grateful that I'm not bitter about the hard things that have happened and I always say this too, it sounds kind of funny, but I'm so grateful to be grateful. That's such a beautiful thing. I have amazing friends, yourself included Paula, but amazing, very close friends. 

And one of them said to me shortly after my mom died, " I know you're feeling very sad now to have lost your mom, but remember I always wanted your mother and I wanted the relationship you had with your mother." And she said, "I will never have that."  

It was like a kick in the gut. And she was right and not my mother's and I, my relationship wasn't perfect for sure. But I had a really, really good one and it was in a weird way the gift of cancer and of her living three years instead of three months. 

We got to talk about a lot of things and we realized we had a finish line so there was things I didn't talk to her about. Of course, I didn't think to ask her about menopause and she didn't think to talk to me about that. Darn it. But there's a few big things and there's things my mom has never got to see in my life. 

But I did get to spend some time that I knew was incredibly valuable. Does that make sense? And I think being aware of that, knowing that, is so special because oftentimes we don't know until it's gone. I lost my dad to a heart attack and it was not expected and I never had that with my dad. And I think those two things made me even more thankful for my mom because I had lost my dad. I lost him when I was 23, 24. 

It was really a gift, really. I wish I could have learned it in a like slightly easier way, still have my mom and dad, but you know, , it's funny. Life gives you things and takes things away, doesn't it? 

Paula Mohammed: Your perspective is a amazing reminder to everybody to take note about what Selena said. And I'm super grateful to have you as a friend.  

Selena Pellizzari: I do take notes from positive Paula for progress too. 

Paula Mohammed: That was my grade 10 slogan when I ran for president. I can't believe you remember that.  

We're due for a trip, Selena. It's been too, too long since we've done one. If anyone is interested in finding more about Cottonwood Stables and what you're doing, is there a place that they can get some information? 

Selena Pellizzari: The website. So we're at gpcottonwoodstables.com. They can just take a look that's all about us and then there's a contact us here, which is a direct link. 

Paula Mohammed: I'll put that in the show notes. Selena, that was so fun for me to have this experience with you. Like how you and I are always chatting about our aspirations for travel and food and cooking. I know you're on your lunch break in between riding your own horses and teaching and cleaning stables. I really appreciate you taking the time to do 

Selena Pellizzari: I gotta go back out to the barn, back out to the stables. Start teaching. But dream about dinner tonight. 

Paula Mohammed: Love it. Thanks  

Selena Pellizzari: Selena 
 

Alright, thanks Paula. 

Paula Mohammed: Well, just like every other episode, I did call Selena right after this one, after we recorded it and I realized we didn't include a recipe. And after the way she deliciously described her grandma's Put Together Cake, I asked her for that recipe. So that is in the show notes. Don't forget to sign up for my handy travel planner. Link is also in the show notes, and you'll also receive a weekly note from me with what's new in my kitchen. Thanks for tuning in. Always appreciated and look forward to sharing more exploration of culture through food in our next episodes.