I was born in the countryside of Brazil during the period of the military coup and grew up in a remote farm. Back in that time the roads were poorly maintained and there were very few means of transport from the farm where I lived to the city. It would take us at least 40 minutes from the door of our house to the door of any shop. Without easy access to supermarkets, bakeries and shops and with very little money to spare my parents used to go to the city centre once a month on payday and buy the essential groceries for the whole month: things like rice, sugar, oil, baking powder, yeast and flour. Apart from those basic ingredients, everything else we used to eat or drink would come from the backyard of our house or from the farm itself.
Life was tough back then, especially for my parents who had to work extremely hard to provide for us. But I have wonderful food memories from that time… I remember climbing mango and clementine trees and getting the first ripened fruit of the season; eating carrots and wild mini tomatoes straight from our garden while watering them with my dad; feeding our chickens and searching for the eggs they laid in the fields near our home… I remember helping my mum with the preparation of the many elements necessary to make her famous chicken and heart of palm pies which I consider the best in this world! I remember kneading bread and baking cakes and biscuits with my mom, stirring big pots of guava jam and “doce de leite” on the wood fire, making a regional corn snack called “pamonha” every January and eating it on a rainy day with coffee made with beans that we grew, roasted and ground ourselves…
Growing up in this environment had a deep impact on me and from a very early age I developed a passion for food - from growing, to making and eating - which has followed me ever since. Considering my background, a career in food would have been a very natural path to follow, but I also have been passionate about nature as far as I can remember and when the time to go to university came I left my little town to get a bachelor degree in Biology and carried on with my studies all the way to a doctorate degree in Ecology and Natural Sciences.
If I were you at this point I would assume that the author of this post became a scientist, a professor or both and in fact I did teach at the university for two and a half years and I was a researcher for at least 7 years during my graduation, masters and doctorate studies. But life is full of surprises and unexpected turns and despite of being a food and nature lover, for the last nine years of my life I haven’t been a chef nor a scientist but I have been a banker working in the City of London. How did that happen? Well, long story short: it is a beautiful love story of which bits and pieces will surely appear in future posts, but for now I think you’ve got a good idea of my background and how and where my passion for food started.
If food also fascinates you, if you enjoy eating, cooking, dining out, growing food, talking about food, sharing food stories and celebrating food: welcome to Alice in Gastronomyland! Over the coming weeks I will share some recipes that I created inspired by the food memories from my childhood and teenage years as well as the people and stories behind them. I hope you will enjoy this space… Stay tuned and bon appétit!
