My love for food probably started when I nestled in my mom's belly. I discovered my love of cooking when I was ten years old. And that with a ready-made mix for brownies. The kind where all you have to do is add butter, eggs and milk, mix it all up, pour the batter into the pan, bake and you're done. I made the brownies according to recipe on the package, but they did not taste good to me. The second attempt was no better. With the rest of my pocket money, I bought a third package and added more ingredients from my mom's always well-stocked pantry like: roasted nuts, ground almonds, cinnamon, vanilla, honey, all seasoned with a big pinch of creativity and curiosity. The result convinced me so much that I have never stuck to a given recipe since. This experience inspired me in ways that the kitchen soon became the place of my freedom. A place without restrictions and rules, a place where I could let my hands dance to the sound of my imagination, where I could express my feelings and creativity and simply be myself.

I would lock myself in the kitchen for hours and cook four-course menues for my family. My goal was never just to create an experience for the taste buds, but to invite my family into my own world and create an experience for all the senses. I wrote the menu on a large piece of paper and hung it on the wall, lit up candles, played music in the background and arranged the plates as if they were works of art. The joy, the happy smiles on my family's faces, and of course enjoying the meal together - I loved every minute of it. And in the end, I always said, "I cook, you clean up," because the kitchen often resembled more of an experimental laboratory after my cooking adventures. You could say we had a lot of explosions in our house. But it's a good thing that many of them were also taste explosions!

FROM PASSION TO PROFESSION

To share my enthusiasm, I brought in photography, another of my big passions. So I started taking pictures of my breakfast creations in the mornings before school and from the very first picture I was amazed at how you can capture emotions from food just as you can from people, animals & nature. I started sharing my pictures and recipes on social media and within no time had tens of thousands of people worldwide following me. That motivated me to keep going. But after a few months I felt like something fundamental was missing. I wanted to make something you can actually hold in your hands, something that would allow me to get in touch with people personally, something I could show my kids one day, and something that didn't just exist on the screen.

So at the age of nineteen I decided to write a cookbook. At that time, I was attending film acting school and worked on my book in every free minute. From cooking, writing, photographing and designing the book from A to Z, I did it all myself. After four months I was done. Shortly after it was published, it became the number one bestseller in the whole country, which surprised me the most. It completely turned my life around. A few months later, I started my own company and turned my passion into my profession.

So a few years have passed, and I couldn't be more grateful to be doing what gives me so much joy every day. I may have been lucky and maybe I was just in the right place at the right time. But it also took countless early mornings and hours late into the night to teach myself new things, to fail, to try again, doubt and saying no to other things, endless commitment, willingness to take risks, motivation, a lot of hard work and a large portion of trust, courage and belief in myself. In my opinion, the most important thing for perseverance, dedication and commitment is the intention with which you do something and a clear vision of what you want to achieve with it, a purpose. Once you know what that is [for me, it is and always has been to touch people emotionally and inspire them to step into their own strength], there is so much energy flowing through your body, mind, and soul so that you can continue on your path no matter what obstacles may be in the way. Because when passion carries & guides you, it no longer feels like work, but simply like living life to the fullest!

Click HERE to see my first cookbook.

MY NEWEST COOKBOOK & COOKING STUDIO

More than three years have passed since the publication of the second book, and a lot has changed ever since. My wish for my own four walls has come true - of course with the kitchen as the most important place, with enough space for all my cooking utensils, plates, dishes, etc., where I feel great and my creativity can flow undisturbed. After a long search, I found the right space and I planned, designed and rebuilt my own kitchen studio with many helping hands in about eight months. [More about the behind the scenes on my Instagram profile under the highlights.] All the pictures in the newest book were taken in and around my cooking studio. I am infinitely grateful for everything and everyone who has supported me on my way so far, believed in me and thereby, made this possible for me.

But not only in my life, also in the world a lot has changed. We talk about overconsumption as well as more poverty, advancing technology, artificial products, additives and modifications in many areas & the often little respect we show Mother Nature. For many people, all this becomes too much, the identification with it becomes more and more difficult. In the past few years - especially last year and this year - either fear and worry have strongly taken root in many, or on the positive side, a raising of consciousness - both individual and collective - has taken place. The need for simplicity, nature, more humanity & connectedness with everything has intensified.

To give oneself more respect mentally, physically and emotionally is more relevant and important than ever. And of course, this includes nutrition as a pivotal aspect, which contributes decisively to the well-being in one's own body. Everything is an interplay of energy. You identify with what you give to your body; you attract what you radiate & vice-versa. What we give to our body has enormous effects on us - not only physically, but also mentally and emotionally. I am convinced that nature, plants, sun, water, earth, and fresh air are among the most powerful remedies available to us directly and immediately.