Each year comes with a new mindset, a new adventure, a different view on life. Everything keeps on changing!

​​This year my interest was drawn towards reducing the complexity and number of ingredients I use in the recipes, and focus more on working more intimately with each component! Also, I don't think any chef would disagree with me when I say that the quality of the ingredients you have are essential for this "mindset" to work. If your sauce is only based on tomatoes, it better be goddamn good tomatoes!

​Now Switzerland, apart from its cheese, chocolate and overpriced meat has enriched my food experience technologically and ethically. One could say my personal awareness on food waste and its "food print" has ultimately increased through projects like "The food hack" and "Envigram". The focus of these projects lies on using "food data" to tackle the environmental harm caused by food production and consumption.

Think of using artificial intelligence to build apps that can tell you which bananas are better for the environment and provides you with recipes that use only seasonal products? A lot of new interesting projects are arising on this front and my recipes are now also available on MyFoodWays.

This is a platform that provides recipes that suit your preferences and adjust based on what’s in your fridge. This year it made it to no.1 new free food and drink app in France and No.2 in Germany and Great Britain! If you have difficulties to make dinner with what is left in the fridge this app is a good start!

Moreover, I started helping out on a crop farm where I have been able to witness the whole process of letting a little seed turn into a beautiful plant and pick its fruits. As a compensation I got to bring home any vegetables I wanted! A dream come true!

This automatically changed the way of thinking about recipes as I now had to work with local and seasonal ingredients. Changing your food palette into something that is better for our planet comes quite natural if you engage more with the local food retailers around you. You will be amazed by how much joy it can bring you!

A new year is about to start. In January I am planning to move back to sunny spain! It will be exciting times for EATILLA as tapas and flamenco are coming our way. Back to the roots of my passion for food ALEGRIA!

I started this food blog exactly one year ago, and given a lot has happened in my life, I felt for a small update.

In the past, cooking was for me a way of following strict diets and to deal with several intolerances to lactose, wheat, potatoes, sugars… you name it, I have done them all. The advantage was that it challenged my creativeness in cooking by being constraint to a limited amount of ingredients. The disadvantage was that I had become the most annoying customer in restaurants or dinner parties. Having dinner was never a simple task, there was always something I could not eat. This year I truly confronted my food problems, and realized that many of my intolerances were a placebo effect. It might sound harsh but I believe most of it is in your mind. It has become a trend to be super raw vegan organic healthy, which in theory is not a bad thing, just it should not restrict your ability to enjoy a simple meal with friends, family, colleagues or exploring the cuisine and culture of a different country.

Last year, I moved to London and was spoiled with endless types of cuisines, ingredients, stores, restaurants, markets and cultural events by walking and biking through the streets of this metropolitan city. It has been a fantastic year for exploring Vietnamese, Moroccan, African, Persian, Chinese and Indian cooking and I have learned to give my dishes a bit more of finesse. This city has changed and enriched my cooking and is a true treasure for those who love food.

Food has now become more a form of enjoying time; this one moment when I feel detached from the busy world around me. For one little hour my thoughts are only focused on spices, boiling water, temperatures and not cutting my fingers! I have chosen to follow the path of science instead of professionally pursuing dance, art or cooking.  Still it is during this little daily cooking moments where my creativeness can blossom! I have found balance and joy in my life through cooking.

A new year, a new challenge. From the multicultural metropolitan streets of London, I am moving to tiny little Swiss Lausanne. No more Indian, Chinese or Moroccan stores around every corner. No more luxury of having any ingredient, spice, and restaurant you can think of available at any hour in your “hood”. In addition, food is extremely expensive in Switzerland so I will have to do some research again on how to smartly approach the daily meal! What’s more I am moving to a tiny 20 m2 studio, with only two cooking pits and a small oven. It is going to be a challenge for sure.

I am looking forward to share more of my food adventures and recipes with the world and inspire you to enjoy the art of cooking!

My name is Atilla and the simplest way to describe myself is that I love everything about food! I get hungry about every two hours and therefore spend the complete day happily thinking about what I will prepare for the next meal. Some people find this strange, I just see it as the return of the lost hunting mentality when humans were still forced to gather food all day in order to survive.

In the past years, people became unaware of what they were eating. A fast, cheap and satisfying meal had become the trend of modern society. The number of human beings on this planet kept on increasing exponentially and as a result genetically manipulated crops were necessary to keep us all fed. Today, in many western countries, this has led to a number of allergies, among which gluten and lactose are the biggest no go’s. I got hit by both, and was thrown in a complete different lifestyle. The super hipster, organic and most of all expensive way of feeding yourself. Quite a disaster considering my income was based on a student loan.

This meant however, that I had to start cooking a lot for myself and my loved roommates since they were always confused about what I could or couldn’t eat. Going to the organic stores to get spelt pasta, sour dough bread and almond milk made me become more aware of the products I was buying. I soon got convinced to also buy organic fruits, vegetables and meat, if they were on offer of course. One had to be smart in order to cook healthy but still affordable. Once, I found a piece of wild salmon with 50 % off! It felt as if I had won the lottery.

This way I began to experiment more and more with food. I started with looking up the ingredients that were on offer that week. Then I looked up recipes containing that particular ingredient. Jamie Oliver, Allerhande and Trine’s Matblogg where my main source of inspiration. Finally I made a combination of all those recipes and invented a new meal.By now, I have made so many meals in these past years, that I have learned to put my own creativity into cooking and no longer need to look up a recipe for every dish I want to make. A new meal is succesfully delicous if there is silence around the dinner table.

Having this said, I would like to share all the knowledge and joy I get through food and hopefully inspire you the same way as other chefs inspired me.

I wish you a very smart bite!