Real food came first. Because I was once completely disconnected from it. As a student in Canada, I once tried roasting chestnuts without scoring them first. When they exploded in the oven, I dove under the kitchen table thinking there was a shooting outside. It’s funny now, but at the time it showed me how little I understood how to prepare the food I wanted to eat, where it came from, or how to cook it.

That moment started a lifelong reconnection with real food. I visited local markets before museums when I traveled, read cookbooks like novels, and later trained as a chef. Along the way I learned that reconnecting to real food changes everything: how we eat, how we feel, and how we come together around the table. In my twenty-plus years in public health, I saw how many families have lost that connection without even realising it.

So in 2020, I wove it all together and created Tribusana: connecting people back to real food, building real connections through cooking together, and creating real change that lasts starting with our children.