ABOUT THIS COOK:

I am Portuguese, I have lived in Portugal, Brazil, France and Italy where my husband and I have a farm in Tuscany. In February 2010 we moved back to Estoril in Portugal. Both my husband and my son cook extremely well, each their own different cuisines. My 9 year old granddaughter has a palate like I've never seen in a child, so it's a pleasure to cook for her aswell. At 45, I decided to change my life and go for my dream - become a professional chef. I graduated from the Cordon Bleu School and moved to Tuscany where I had a Cooking Shool for 3 years. I now live in Estoril, 20 minutes away from Lisbon on the Atlantic coast, where I am a personal chef and cookery teacher. I basically mix and match Portuguese, French, Italian and Middle Eastern cuisine. Here in Food 52 I also go by the name Babette's Feast where I post mostly revisited French cuisine. .

• What is the strangest food you have ever eaten?
  Jaca, a brazilian fruit - it looks and tastes very weird

• What do you cook when home alone?
  Tartines - fresh bufallo mozzarella with anything and a drizzle of olive oil! YUM!

• Your most treasured kitchen possession:
  My chef's knife but also my.. and my.. and my EVERYTHING! I am a kitchen utensils addicted shopper.

• The ideal number of guests for a dinner party is:
  8