Paris,

Je suis arrivé!

Magnifique view from the Maison Balzac.

My very first teacher was French. She was a missionary. The Catholic Church had started this mission of bringing education to the remote areas of the Amazon, where I grew up. So, she ended up being an incredible source of help to us, Brazilian children, at a little school called Jardim Beija-Flor, painted with red stripes.

She was tall and blonde, with clear blue eyes, and always wore midi skirts. She walked so elegantly that I couldn’t help but admire her natural sophistication. Kind and with a strong accent, she hugged us frequently. She was as French as it gets and her name was, well, France.

She would teach us how to sing “Frère Jacques” with her melodious voice, tell us about the marvelous foods from her country, and make me, a girl who had never left that little forest village, dream about Paris. I wonder if that was her real mission.

And because of France, I grew up dreaming about soufflé au fromage, quiches, and pâté-a-choux. Cheeses. The Eiffel Tower. And eating cheeses under the Eiffel Tower. I dreamed about dishes I had never really learned about (or tasted) until I was an adult.

But oh! How I loved the suggestion of those dishes' delightful flavors that I could see in France’s eyes when she spoke about them. I closed my eyes and could almost imagine myself eating them too. At age six, I figured I was in love with food.

My connection with this place started without me even noticing or putting effort into it. It was as natural as cooking is now to me. It's love. And it's what makes it still so surreal that I somehow won a prize and a blessing from my own destiny to be here. In Paris!

I wish I could put into words (or at least better ones) what this experience of learning about the art of cooking in France really means to me. I wish you could catch from my eyes a suggestion of the delightful flavors of a soufflé au fromage, quiches, and pâté-a-choux that I have now tasted in Paris.

I am still so in love with food. In fact, I've never been as in love with food as I am now. Right here.

And I hope you will follow this journey alongside me. The realization of this long-awaited dream is about to begin.

Merci, France. Merci beaucoup to the two of you.