What Make this Foodie Tick? Interview Brazilian Style..

"I love cooking
and love food in general. I also have a food blog that's rather
successful here in Brazil: Cantina da Laura . I usually like to write about ways of dealing with the kitchen when
you're totally unskilled (and don't want to order pizza!), because I
think the world has enough gourmet writers (even though I fancy myself as one, sometimes!) :) " ---Laura Prado

Laura has a great spirit.She is a fellow Foodie & Food blogger. And a Flickr Member - That's how our two worlds collided, hers' in Brazil, mine in the Pacific Northwest. There are several food related groups on Flicker and I wanted to hear first hand from other food lovers, regardless if they were food professionals or novice. "Tell me your stories " - I asked. And people responded. This is the first in a series of food interviews.

Here she explains her love affair with food, In her Own Words :

" I'm not sure if people believe me when I say I love slicing, dicing and
cutting up vegetables in general. For sure they don't take me
seriously. But I mean it.

I think it must be a common feeling between people who know
how wonderful it is to cook. You just grab something completely and
utterly raw as a cucumber and turn that thing into something that even
cucumber-haters would love (especially if they don't know it's
cucumber). It can become anything you want.

I wanted to become a chef, but I lack the money to go through cooking
school. I also lack the contacts to work in the field without a degree. For a while it made me really sad to think I'd never achieve it. But then I realized I didn't have to be able to cook the perfect pheasant dish to be able to cook. I could just make things up and serve it to my friends.

So that's my cooking verve: everyday cooking. I try to gather easily
available ingredients and make all sorts of new dishes. And that's
what I write about. I found out many of my friends were tired of
ordering pizza and cooking ramen every single day. Most lived alone
and never had time or patience to do stuff in the kitchen. Still, they
wanted to taste new stuff.

So I started teaching them this little things that you could do,
flavors you could combine. It's no big deal, but I feel it's a whole
new world in the kitchen when instead of having ramen with artificial
flavoring, you can have it with cream cheese, olives and nuts. It's
fancy and easy at the same time.

Of course, in my own kitchen, I keep trying harder stuff: souffles,
risottos and other things that require a bit more skill, but I like to
help people realize that the kitchen is a good place to be and that
cooking is not always just an everyday chore. I think I'm just hoping
that people can love food and cooking as much as I do.

I think sometimes I take my food too serious, but that's just because
I love doing it and I pour myself in the preparation.

My husband says my relationship with food is stronger than ours. I hope he's just kidding, but I guess he's on to something... "