Origins
When people ask me “where do you come from?”, I always need to tell a short story. Born in Brazil, Chinese parents, Shanghainese family (上海人), lived in Hong Kong when I was a baby and a toddler, settled in France 13 years ago. Since then I became a dual French Brazilian citizen, could not claim a Chinese passport though, otherwise I would have to drop my other two nationalities. So, to make a long story short, I define myself as Chinese French Brazilian. As simple as this!
Funny that being on the other side of the globe I grew up eating Chinese food. Traditional Sunday lunch at Chinese restaurants, unforgettable family dinners when Bubu (my maternal grandma) used to cook for an entire week to feed her family, with her children and grandchildren we were 16 people. Her banquets were memorable! These early experiences forged my culinary preferences and my passion for cooking, especially Chinese food!
Then France. How did France step into my life? First, for my graduate studies (proud to be an INSEAD MBA). Some years later I had the chance to come back to France again for my work and have stayed here ever since. Love the country, the culture, the gastronomy! In France more than anywhere else, wines are a recurrent topic discussed at every meal. This has caught my interest, so I decided to learn more about wines, in theory (WSET 3, one day I will go for level 4) and in practise. And since we (the French) tend to pair everything we eat with wine irrespective of the cuisine, it was quite natural for me to start pairing Chinese food with French wines.
French wines are extremely diverse, just like French or Chinese gastronomies. There are several wine regions, producing wines with very different profiles. I realised that there are specific wine appellations in France that are just perfect for certain Chinese regional cuisines, like they were born for each other!
Last but not least, I need to tell you about my third culinary passion, Chinese teas. In fact, my ancestors used to plant tea in Anhui province (but that’s a story to be told another day). The truth is that I drink loose leaf Chinese teas since early age. Whilst my knowledge on wines was gained from theory to practise, it was just the other way around in the case of teas. Love to pair Chinese or Western snacks with different Chinese teas. Again, it’s all about pairings.
Hope you enjoy my posts as well as the blog content. Feel free to comment or reach me out for any questions!
