How OrganicSassy fell in love with food

My passion is Food. Real Food. Honest Food. Food is what defines us as human beings, as cultures, as identities. I believe quality Food is not only a primary life need; it is our birth right. Food is about flavour, best enjoyed in its unadulterated form. An Italian saying I whole heartedly agree with is: “Good food brings you a little bit closer to God”. Who that god might be can be left entirely to personal interpretation, but the point is that Food adds an extra dimension to life which I would not want to forgo in any case. I have been in love with Food all my life, even though Food and I got off to a rough start.

Food and I met on a cold winters day in 1980 in the picturesque city of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I was born with an allergy to artificial food additives causing a nasty skin rash (eczema). Not exactly a great way to fall in love with Food, but my Hungarian mother, who is from the countryside, always cooked everything fresh and from scratch. However, when I would eat elsewhere (processed foods are extremely popular in the Netherlands) I would have a terrible outbreak of eczema within hours. Several visits to the hospital taught us what we already suspected; Food was playing a dirty trick on me!

During the holidays we usually went to my grandparents in Hungary, where all summer I took great joy and pride in harvesting fresh fruit and vegetables for the lunch and dinner table. My grandmother cooked on an old fashioned stove for which we had to chop wood. She would trade her fresh produce for a live chicken from the neighbour and dissect it in front of my eyes. Nothing in her kitchen went to waste and everything she made was delicious. Including offal that is. This wasn't just a big adventure for me, it also taught me the true flavour and true value of Food.

Back in the Netherlands I would ask my mother why Food there tasted so differently compared to the Food in Hungary. Chicken was tasteless, tomatoes were watery and sour, milk wasn't creamy. I missed the fresh produce, so I started my own little vegetable patch, every week digging out the carrots to see how much they had grown and carefully putting them back in the soil afterwards. Eventually I started questioning why and how the food industry could be allowed to sell products that were harmful to our health and wellbeing. No one could answer my questions. 

When I was eleven years old I read Anita Roddick's book about The Body Shop and I decided that I wanted to do work through which I could give back to the earth, animals and the community. Not much later, during my adolescence, I read about philosophy, history and politics. I never joined or supported any particular political movement, but I strongly believe that altruism and a strong social safety net should be the cornerstones of a civilised society. I convinced my family and friends to choose fair trade and organic products wherever possible. They did back then and still do now.

Not surprisingly, I got into the kitchen at a very young age and never really got out. I love growing Food, shopping for Food and the process of preparing Food to share with others. However, I didn’t become a chef as life had a different scenario in store for me. It all started with Slow Food and reading Michael Pollan's books. They gave me answers but also created more questions. I had to DO SOMETHING! Two years ago I started my own business in food marketing focusing on the niche market of local organic and artisanal Food. Today I am in Italy where I study at the University of Gastronomic Sciences. My love affair with Food was built to last...