Bye Simona, first of all: welcome to the Foodies Arena team! Can you introduce yourself briefly?

After my first job as an orthopedist, my husband and I left on a trip around the world. We visited 53 countries together in two and a half years. We enjoyed the different experiences so much, especially all the food we were allowed to discover, that we had the idea to open a cooking school in Mexico. Unfortunately, that turned out not to be fully feasible after all.

In the end we came back to Belgium and extended that idea of giving cooking workshops to here. I wanted to pass on all my knowledge and love for food from all over the world to the people here.

What an adventure! Did you immediately feel a match with Foodies Arena?

What especially attracted me to come here to cook is the fact that I will be able to do my own thing and put a personal touch into every dish. In my previous job I cooked for a large team of over 100 people. I love to cook for people and always try to take everyone's wishes and preferences into account. That's just a little bit easier in smaller groups. That way I also feel more connected to the people I cook for and I can make everyone happy, because that's what food should do for me.

When can our visitors see you standing behind the pots and pans and enjoying your creations?

When companies hold a meeting or workshop in Foodies or Office Arena and they want to eat in the afternoon, I'm there for them as an in-house chef to provide a delicious lunch. It's also possible, for example, that I prepare a healthy lunch for the coworkers on a fixed day of the week. But I might as well share my cooking knowledge through recipes and blog posts on the site. A job with a lot of variation that I can fully throw myself into.

Where does your passion for cooking come from?

When I was about 10 years old, we took the class on a trip to the multicultural neighbourhood in Genk. There we could taste traditional dishes in every shop: Turkish desserts, Greek olives, fresh Italian pasta... I always remembered that day and the discovery of those many cultures.

Where did you learn to cook so well, besides the many trips you made?

I used to cook with my Italian grandmother, both at home and in her own restaurant in Genk. There I was always allowed to taste all kinds of things and learned to eat and make the most delicious things. I also have a good relationship with my Italian aunt. I often call her to ask how to make certain traditional recipes.

I also followed several workshops, among others with Pieter-Jan Lint and I am very much looking forward to Ottolenghi. I like to base myself on his cooking skills, like vegetarian cooking without wanting to replace meat, but with the goal to appreciate the authentic taste of the vegetables and meat substitutes.

It is clear that authenticity and traditions are your hobbyhorses, but what exactly does that mean for you and the dishes you make?

For me, authentic cooking means that the dishes taste as they are prepared in the country of origin. For me, for example, a tiramisu must consist of the original ingredients: mascarpone, long fingers, coffee, eggs, sugar and cocoa powder. Don't get me wrong, everyone is allowed to add their own touch to a dish - like caramelized biscuits or raspberry coulis to your tiramisu - but then I don't think you can call it an original tiramisu anymore. I'm strict about that.

(laughs) That's why I travel so much and love it. I want to bring bits of the world here in as authentic a way as possible so that my dinner guests, like me, can fall in love with world cuisine in the same way.

To conclude, do we want to know what your ultimate favorite dish is?

You can't ask me to choose just one dish, that's not fair. (laughs) I love varied food and all the different food cultures. So I'm going to give two comprehensive answers! I love the Mediterranean cuisine, with the Italian cuisine at the forefront, of course, and the Israeli cuisine at number two. You catch me with classics like hummus falafel and those delicious herb mixes like za'atar and baharat. But I couldn't miss the Asian cuisine either. A tasty spicy Indian dish or a Vietnamese pho, that makes me spontaneously hungry.

Hmm, we're starting to salivate too. We are really looking forward to what you will present to our visitors and how you will convey your love for world cuisine to them. See you in the kitchen, Simona!