“One falafel without onions, one beef kebab with the lot and one Adana kebab please!”
Yes, you guessed correctly: one of the times I worked in the food industry was in a kebab shop, in Sydney. Besides, I used to do some waitressing jobs during my studies and worked in a café in Montréal.
But actually, I am simply a home-cook who started cooking and being interested in food quite a long time ago. While I was in high school my parents went to Italian classes on Monday evenings. Every week I would cook them a different risotto and a dessert. From there on I have developed my cooking by learning from recipes, my father, other people, and a lot of trial and error. And of course you also learn from working in a kebab shop, even though the general believe might be against it!
Over the years I have travelled through and lived in several countries. Those travels and different homes have been my largest inspiration. Also, it taught me a lot about creative cooking. Not every home I have lived in had the largest kitchen: from only a microwave in the USA, via no kitchen in a French campus room, two electric hotplates in a tiny studio in Belgium, a shared dirty boarding house kitchen in Australia, to a relatively well equipped kitchen with old fashioned tiles and gas bottles in Spain. This does make you creative, and it has taught me that great food doesn’t necessarily need an amazing kitchen or specialized equipment. The main things are good ingredients, creativity and a bit of love.
The recipes on the blog are written and tested by me. Some things I made up myself, other recipes I read at some point and adapted while making them. There are many things that inspire me, but one of the most influential is definitely travelling. And whenever I am travelling for a while I usually take some dried chillies, salt, and oregano in my backpack. In the end, you can never know what will be available in the next hostel kitchen, so some basic flavouring is great to have with you at all times. Hence the name of the blog.
Enjoy!
Gabriella
Cooking in different kitchens
The roaming chilli 