#PeopleFirst Friday: Kristin Devereaux
Despite being half Italian on her mother’s side, Vice President of Events Kristin Devereaux has never been to Italy. That doesn’t stop her from wanting to immerse herself in all things Italian culture.
“I’ve been trying to learn Italian during the little free time that I have,” Devereaux said. “I have a lovely little app called Duolingo that yells at me multiple times a day because I’ve been really lax on it lately. That little cartoon bird is really mean!”
With both maternal grandparents hailing from Italy, it has always been a dream for Devereaux to travel there, not just to meet extended family, but to experience the Italian lifestyle firsthand.
“One of my distant cousins was an Olympic Bobsledder for Italy. Who knew? Not me!” she said with a laugh. “We have a lot of distant family in Italy that I’ve never met in person, and most of whom I’ve never spoken to. I keep saying that I want to go for my five-year wedding anniversary.
“I want to basically take a sabbatical. Take a trip for 30 days, and just say ‘Peace Out, we’re going’,” Devereaux continued. “It’s not so much the touristy things I want to do. I want to go get lost in a little town on the coast and eat as much fresh pasta and drink as much wine as humanly possible.”
In her quest to immerse herself in all things Italian, Devereaux has also taken up cooking from her grandmother’s recipe book, taken from what’s known in her family simply as “The Book.”
“It’s literally a three-ring binder with all of our family trees and old photos, and all the logs from Ellis Island when my great grandparents came over,” Devereaux said. “All of these old Italian recipes that were originally written in Italian, she translated them to English, cooked them, and took photos of them. It’s so awesome.”
While she aspires to master all of the recipes in “The Book,” (noting that she really wants to try making a porchetta but isn’t quite brave enough to tackle it quite yet), it’s not uncommon for Devereaux to whip up a typical pasta dish of spaghetti and meatballs during the week for dinner, a favorite of her husband and stepson.
“I think I’ve skewed their vision of what a weeknight meal is,” she said, laughing. “Last night, I went home, I made sauce from scratch. I made meatballs from scratch, and if I have time, I’ll make pasta from scratch. I love to do it.”