I n 2013 I moved from Milan to work as a pastry chef in Marano Vicentino, a tiny town in the region of Veneto. My new boss was the youngest chef to be awarded a Michelin star in Italy and I was excited by the opportunity to work at El Coq, living in the staff sharehouse and learning everything I could. I’d been there a year when Oskar arrived on the scene. A fellow chef and friend of my boss, he had been working on a boat somewhere and was going to stay with us in the sharehouse for a few weeks and spend some time in the kitchen helping us develop the menu. Federica and Oskar in Venice a few months after they first met. Photograph: Guardian Design/Federica Andrisani The first day we met he had lunch and dinner at the restaurant. I barely remember looking at him as I was brought table side to explain my desserts, I only remember being confused by his blue eyes and fair skin – I thought my boss had said he was from Tanzania, I’d never even heard of Tasmania.…