We are happy to announce and introduce you to our new columnist. Simone B. Michielen has lived in Slovenia since 2004, she is an amazing self-made chef with, by now, quite a lot of training and even more experience. You might know her from her appearance on Masterchef Slovenija.
Introduction from Simone B. Michielen
Since 2004 I live in Slovenia, where I moved after living in Spain for 5 years.
As a self-made chef with, by now, quite a lot of training and even more experience, I love to experiment with tastes and textures. Cooking and good food is part of my life since 40 years, when I started in my first cooking class to learn how to cook a proper meal. It was the basis for my passion, as there is nothing better than people who fall in love with your food or falling in love with good food others serve you.
I love the traditional French kitchen, but also the freshness of the Asian kitchen. I will always be happy with a nice piece of meat or fish, but at the moment my challenge is to cook with and eat less meat, because it is healthier, leaves less of a footprint and can taste just as good! To be honest, I don’t care so much about rules and conventions, the most important thing is the happiness good food and good company can bring!
Life in quarantine in Slovenia
In a normal world, I would go for a nice lunch or dinner today. But the world isn’t normal anymore and just like everybody else, I am in social isolation. And while these are hard times for everybody because we all have to survive not only with our health but also financially and economically. I see people suffer to tie ends together and friends who don’t know how to pay everything they have to next month. I know people who got stranded while they thought they could travel and even opened my house for them, just thinking what I would want people to do when my children would not know where to stay abroad. I am a strong believer that we can do a lot, if not everything if we do it together and that is why I use the #togetherwecan more than ever!
As most of you know I love to cook, but I also love to go out for an inspiring lunch or dinner and enjoy the food another chef is cooking for me. And we are so blessed with the culinary offer in Slovenia right now, that I don’t even know where to begin! This made me think passed this crisis and, a little selfish, about what I could do to make the odds to be able to go out to my favorite restaurants again one day a bit better. Around the world, I see that small businesses offer vouchers, which is, of course, the best way to help somebody and, hopefully, get the revenue too. This made me decide to buy one voucher per week, for a degustation menu in one of my favorite restaurants, on the day that I would normally visit them if I could…
I wish we all would support our local businesses because one day (and I really hope this day will come sooner than later) we will be happy we did.
I am not a saint and unfortunately also not a millionaire, neither am I one of the heroes working in healthcare, police force or in a supermarket or other important job. But I can do something! With fantasizing about where I would like to go and acting as if I am going, I make my social isolation a lot less boring. And with a little help from everybody who can, maybe the places we all like to go and which make our life so much more fun and attractive will survive and be able to welcome us again, when this is over.
Remember: a lot of drops can fill a bucket too!
Do you want to buy a voucher too? Not all restaurants offer them standard on their website, but you can send them an e-mail and ask them to make you an offer. Are you a restaurant and do you offer vouchers? Please post it on social media and tag me!
Let’s look after each other and ourselves. #stayhome #togetherwecan
