I am Lydia. I am a writer, trained interior designer turned food blogger, food stylist and photographer, wife and mother of a 13 years old girl. I was born and grew up in Macau, a small peninsula by the Pearl River Delta, southeast China, a former colony of Portugal. My passion for cooking started when I was a teenager, having to have to help my mother cooking for a big family, I adored my mother’s devotion to the family and her patience to cook delicious meals for us several times a day! I always hoped that my cooking would one day be as good as hers.
Apart from my mother’s home cooking, the colonized Portuguese cuisine – Macanese was also an important influence on my cooking. The combination of Portuguese and Chinese ingredients and cooking methods makes this cuisine unique. My father loved Macanese food and we often dined out in restaurants, grilled chorizo and boiled bacalhau were his favorites, smell of olive oil was part of my childhood memories.
These experiences helped shaping my passion for good food and appreciation of fresh, local and seasonal ingredients, which make cooking and eating much more meaningful and enjoyable.
In my early twenties I moved to London to study and the last thing I knew, I fell in love with the city, in which I lived for 14 years. Although I am an interior designer by training, I spent most of my years working and learning about restaurant business. Since London is a metropolis of international cuisine, I was lucky enough to meet many great cooks, taste many great foods during those years. These experiences have really extended my cooking repertoire, the use of ingredients as well as cooking techniques.
After I moved to Berlin with my husband and daughter, I became a stay at home mum, which provided me a great opportunity to get into cooking again. And needless to say, Berlin has an amazing food culture, which expanded my horizon for endless possibility of working with food in a much more creative way.
I started to write family friendly recipes for a German parenting blog – Kleinstyle in 2012, and I started this blog -ginger&chorizo in August 2014. This is the place where I write about the food that fascinates me, the stories of my relationship with food that hopefully, you can somehow relate to.
Here you will find recipes that are inspired by Portuguese-influenced cuisine of Macau as well as international cuisines, which I have been exposed to during the past 20 years. Recently, I switched to a plant-based diet because I wanted to do my part to help reducing the negative impact on the environment. Therefore you will also find more and more delicious plant-based recipes on the blog.
...and what do I do apart from cooking and blogging?
A few years ago, I was very lucky to have the chance to work as a freelance food stylist which had brought my creative food journey into the next level. I could finally combine my knowledge of design and my passion for food into one setting. Not only does food styling give me immense enjoyment and satisfaction, but also allows me to challenge myself to step out of my comfort zone, pushing myself to work harder and embrace the ever-changing world around with even more curiosities and open-minded than before. You can see my food styling work on my Instagram account.
My goal in 2022 is to work towards becoming a professional food photographer, to challenge myself to move on to yet another level as a creative.
I hope you will enjoy this journey with me!
ginger & chorizo 