Hi there, I am Katja!
Hello and welcome to my food blog! I’m so happy you have found your way to my little corner of the internet!
Culinary art has always been my interest and my passion. One of my fondest childhood memories is helping to prepare cookies and gingerbread for christmas.
When it came to choosing a career after school, I had a variety of options in my mind – most of which had to do with food preparation. For a while I wanted to be a brewer, another time I wanted to work in the chocolate factory in my neighborhood.
But in the end I decided to do an apprenticeship as a cook, which I completed in a venerable family-run grand hotel. You can really say that I still experienced the old school of cooking there and I consider myself lucky that these traditions laid the foundation for my culinary skills.
Later, I studied food engineering and even later, I am working as a product developer in the food industry. In my spare time I just keep on developing recipes. It has long been a heart’s desire for me not only to cook for friends, family and colleagues, but also to share with the rest of the world what I am stirring together in the kitchen. I can never get tired of dealing with cooking styles, regional cuisines from all over the world, special ingredients and how to leave them out.
That being said, I am also dealing with irritable bowel syndrome for more than 20 years now. The symptoms were sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker, but they have only subsided significantly since I stopped eating gluten about two years ago. Of course, IBS is also an incentive to pore over different approaches to nutrition and I have occupied myself intensely with forms of nutrition such as low carb, Keto and Paleo diet. That being said, these days I don’t follow any of these diets 100%. But I strongly believe, that we all need nourishing foods made from nutrient-dense real ingredients to thrive.
My recipes should be as healthy and inclusive as possible – nobody should be excluded from devouring a meal because of food allergies or special diet requirements. Every recipe on this blog will be gluten free. But I am also on a mission to create opportunities for vegan and allergen-free variations as far as possible.
Another part of the puzzle and the reason why I choose the name Zucchinista for the blog is my garden. I inherited my family’s house when i was 30 and that includes a quarter of an acre of kitchen garden. Ever since my grandparents build the garden in the 50s, it was a kitchen garden to provide the family with fruit and vegetables. I am in the process of creating an urban homestead and forest garden. I want to create a place in the suburban landscape that is more fertile, diverse and species-rich than its surroundings.
One of the main crops besides apples and berries are zucchinis – they are just so incredibly fertile! During summertime they are a main staple in my kitchen and i just love to create all kinds of meals and baked goods on their basis. This blog aims to offer the opportunity to follow this journey from start to finish – from the seed to the crumbs that are left over from the meal.
I’m so glad you stopped by and I am so thrilled to be on this journey with you, right from the start. Thank you for your interest in my recipies! Please feel free to email me with any questions, recommendations, wishes or just to chat.
