It took me a linguistic education, a couple of years in Italy in the conviction of being a reincarnated Etruscan princess and a failed attempt in politics, to end up in the kitchen. I shaped my skills working in restaurants and would write on the side –  this combo of sadistic manual kitchen labour and working with the head in solitude works for me.

In the meantime I have traded restaurant cooking for food styling, which is less sadistic but enough to be challenged. I believe culinary communication is about the whole picture of copy, visuals and kitchen background. And why am I pictured here smashing the aromatic hell out of lemongrass? If I have build up anything like a signature in the last decade, it would be bold tastes and the use of avalanches of spices. But with an Indonesian background this could also just be genetic.

Vanja van der Leeden
food stylist | food writer | recipe developer

V A N J A | culinary communication
Nieuwendammerkade 26H
1022 AB Amsterdam
E: info@vanja.cc
T: +31(0)6-47944349