Cooking With Passion: My Journey

Tina Kycynka

My name is Tina Kycynka ( maiden name, Ruggiero ). I was born in 1960 in East Islip, New York and moved to Florida when I was six (lucky Me) paradise for sure ! I have one brother and one sister.  I’m half Irish half Italian. 

I’m a wife,  a mother of three amazing children, dog mom, and I currently run my husband's chiropractic office. I have had many different jobs. My first job being a mermaid at the world, famous Weeki Wachee State Park (formerly Weeki Wachee Springs), a cashier, working in boutiques, and the list goes on. I have a background in modeling. Having modeled for HSN, Disney, and national television commercials.

By being active in the pageant industry, I have created a platform to help the homeless.  Also, I started raising awareness and became an advocate against human trafficking, which has been a really important time in my life and feel like God has used me truly in that. That’s what I love about life, seeing “what God has next”.

I love God first and foremost. I love living this amazing life He’s gifted me with and I love being around people. 

I have a passion for food whether it’s cooking or eating (I wanted to be a food critic, lol ). One of my dreams was to have an Italian restaurant that would only be open three days a week and the menu would rotate and be different all the time depending on what I chose to cook for the evening, so you could only get what I was cooking that night. Kind of a more intimate and family style idea, which I think would’ve worked out great, but I never got that far, so now I just cook for others and hope they love it as much as I love doing it for them.

I’m taking my years of growing up in an Italian family and bringing a cookbook to fruition. Basically simple meals, maybe with a twist, but that anyone could make. So many people are intimidated by cooking and they shouldn’t be.

Now, I’ll be releasing my first cookbook From My Italian Heart To Your Table, which contains simple recipes that anyone can make, and hopefully creating an experience around your table. It’s filled with stories, great recipes, and little nuggets of God. This is something I never thought I'd be able to do, but God has made it possible, so I’m super excited about this, and I am hoping that it will bring joy to many people’s lives.