The woman who wrote down the tastes of home

My story

I have cooked as long as I can remember. Everything I know I learned in my mother's and grandmother's kitchen, where recipes weren't written down, they were shown. You watch, you help, you taste... and one day you realise your hands know it themselves. The measurements were done by eye, and the table was always full.

When the children grew up and the house went quiet, I began sharing my cooking online. And then the messages started, from Germany, from Switzerland, from Australia. Our people, years away from home, wrote to me: "This smells like my grandmother's house." That was when I understood that what I'm sharing isn't only recipes.

"These recipes aren't mine. I only wrote them down, so they wouldn't be lost."

I realised that if nobody wrote them down, these dishes would slowly disappear. So I sat down and started writing. I tested every recipe in my own kitchen, measured what had always been done by eye, and explained it step by step, so it works for you the first time.

Today my books are read in thousands of homes, on every continent. What makes me happiest is a message that says: "It worked. It tastes just like home." That's why I do this: so the tastes of our mothers and grandmothers reach our children too.

— Mama