For the past 14 years, I've been living in a small town on the southeastern coast of the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest. When we arrived in Brazil, I didn't speak Portuguese well, so I baked cakes to share with friends.

One thing led to the next and before I knew it I was teaching different cuisines I’ve learned in my travels around the world as a fun way to learn about different flavors and herbs and spices to create meals that are both delicious and medicinal. 

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When I incorporated my long-time interest in mindfulness to the classes we began to explore healing and food. I was surprised by how many of my students had no cooking skills and a ton of performance anxiety and fear around this wonderful and fundamental tool for self healing and community building.

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A few years later this led to opening a small locally sourced, globally flavored restaurant and cultural center with my husband, who was born in Brazil to immigrants from Spain. We hosted a farmers market once a week, created a network of local providers, and had awesome live music at night.

 

My cooking is a lot like my healing and my life. It's multi-cultural (like my kids), creative, unconventional, and full of depth.​ It’s a life made from scratch, simple, but rich and full of depth.