Our Humble Beginnings!

During this past spring and summer, we—like so many others— were all stuck inside of our homes; unable to leave and needing to find something, anything, to fill the time. I have just moved to New York and started my architectural career here in the city, and Dina being back in London who bravely changed careers and employers during the peak of the pandemic.

Once our day jobs were finished, we needed some sort of entertainment that wasn’t solely whisky based. So, we decided to start making recipes we saw on social media, or something we heard about while watching Netflix and watching every single Star Wars and Marvel movie.

Things were simple at the beginning, stews, pancakes, baked meat, and then, of course, lots and lots of pasta. Obviously, I made lots of actual bread. Dina decided making dairy-free croissants was a good idea to make from scratch and lost 14-hours to active baking. But the croissants were delicious.

During the quarantine, I wanted to start reaching out to all the friends I have made while backpacking the world after I graduated from college. They lived nicely spread out all over the world; some were around Europe, the Oceania, Asia, and in different parts of the Americas. While my intentions at first were to check-in and make sure they were doing alright, while the world was locking down. I eventually started asking: “What are they making for food?” “What have you been cooking where you are from?” Shops and grocery stores were been changing during all this and forcing some to make simple comfort food they knew growing up.

As this went on, Dina and I would keep in touch with video game nights or just Whatsapp calls. Together we thought of the idea of creating a cookbook for ourselves. As we started working, we shared recipes back and forth, made new recipes, and tried new ideas. Then I thought—what if this wasn’t just us— what if more people joined.

We got to work, reaching out to all the friends we had, everyone from different countries, and from so many different walks of life. We explained our idea, to compile a cookbook with recipes from all across the world, and share it with everyone. Because while we can’t, and still can’t, sit at the same table, we can surely eat the same food.

As people sent us the recipes, we put them to use, testing each one and adjusting the measurements to make things perfect for our readers. Soon, the book was growing, and more people were responding than ever. We needed to start organizing these together into a single book. As I worked on the design and layout of the book, I asked a few friends to help with the cover art and some of the graphics going inside.

Everyday the book grew and grew and became more and more complete. We felt it was time to publish, but we wanted to stick to our original idea of it being free and easily accessible to anyone. As we looked into different ways of publishing, it was difficult to find a place to distribute it, while allowing it to be free. We ended up settling with having it as an Ebook on Amazon. This way people could have it wherever they need, and it’s in digital form, so no need to waste paper or shipping.

The book is out there, our three-months worth of work, available for about two US Dollars. We couldn’t be happier with how it came out and how it has awoken a hidden passion in our lives. We love to cook, and we love to cook for other people. In the end, we built this website to keep this passion alive, we wanted a central place where we can put our recipes for anyone who wants them. And here, there will be no two-dollar charge.

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