Hi. I'm Vanessa. I was born in Coimbra, Portugal, where some of my earliest memories revolve around food. Not fancy food. Real food.
 

Fresh bread from the neighborhood bakery. Long lunches that somehow turned into dinner. Family gathered around a table where there was always one more chair to pull up and one more story to tell.
 

When I was young, my family moved to the East Coast of the States, bringing Portugal with us in whatever ways we could. The language stayed. The traditions stayed. And thankfully... so did the recipes. When I was twenty, life shifted again.
 

My parents and sister moved back to Portugal while I stayed in the United States (with a brief stint in England). For the next fourteen years, home existed in two places at once. I traveled back whenever I could, soaking up every café, market, family dinner, and Sunday afternoon that reminded me where I came from.
 

Eventually, my parents returned to California to spend time with their grandchildren and eleven years later, retirement called them home once again, and these days they spend most of the year back in Portugal... just like about ninety percent of the rest of my family. They always show up when it matters - Christmas, graduations, big life events. Just like they always have. And it's something they've always taught me. To show up as authentically as you can.
 

So that's what I'm doing here in California with my incredible wife and our four boys. Doing my best to make sure they grow up knowing the Portugal that shaped me.