A native Roman who has lived extensively in the U.S., France and Great Britain. Petulia has a deep passion for local culture and what makes a country and a city special and unique: food, folklore, culture. In her previous life she trained to be a lawyer, but more recently she decided to further develop her passion and pursue an MA in social history at the University of Edinburgh.

Born and raised in Milan, Irene moved to Scotland in 2009. She achieved a PhD in Art History at the University of Edinburgh in 2015. Her doctoral thesis looked at the artistic patronage of the Vespucci family in fifteenth-century Florence. Irene currently works at the University of Edinburgh. She loves art, coffee, yoga, and the sun – not necessarily in this order. Despite her reluctance to sit on planes, she is a travel addict and she hopes to tour the world one day. Edinburgh stole her heart and it is now her home.

Born in Alloa, central Scotland, Gavin has always had a passion for food and drink reflected in his recently completed M.Sc. in Gastronomy at Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. He is particularly interested in the social history of food and drink especially in Scotland, his Master’s dissertation being on the history of oyster fishing and consumption in Edinburgh. From his first degree in Geography, French and German, Gavin has had a lifelong passion for sharing knowledge. First as a secondary school teacher then as a qualified Blue Badge Tourist guide, always keen to promote the food and drink his home country offers. As an advocate for British, particularly Scottish food culture, Gavin is keen to dispel myths about the quality of our food encountered either when he lived in France or when travelling in Europe and North America. Gavin believes the past, present and future of food culture is a fascinating subject and can form a universal bond between people. To have the opportunity to place it in context whilst sampling delicious food and drink is always an informative, yet, fun thing to do, so: Bon Appétit!