Laurel Evans has made a career of teaching Italians about American cuisine. The cookbook author was born and raised in Boerne, but moved to Milan when she fell in love with and eventually married an Italian, photographer Emilio Scoti.

Through her blog Un’Americana in Cucina and her cookbooks Buon Appetito America!, American Bakery, and La Cucina Tex-Mex, she has spent years showing her adopted homeland that food in the U.S. is more than just hamburgers and hot dogs.