Hi, I’m Ana
and I’ve been cooking responsibly since 2017, working actively to reduce food and resources wastage. I’m a fermentation and foraging curious. Currently based in Porto.
I consider myself a versatile cook, that can easily adapt to most cuisines. Bellow you can find a small sample of the work I’ve been developing in the past years, mostly consisting of breakfast, lunch and pastries, which are my main focus at the moment.
about
hire me
During the past years I worked actively to reduce food and resources wastage in the kitchens I worked, while also ensuring the food was prepared and presented to the highest standard. I am a problem solver and highly adaptable to new kitchen environments. Latelly, I’ve teamed with local businesses as a chef consultant, developing and documenting custom recipes, re-designing menus and training their teams. On some occasions I catered for small private events and organized world food pop-ups.
work with me
My skills and specialities include baking pastries and sourdough bread, cooking nutritious meals with vegetables and comfort food. I’m a thorough planner and organizer, keeping track of stocks, following budgets and maintining food cost at healthy levels, by implementing accurate technical sheets and portion control, as well as making sure all processes are efficient and cost effective.
resumé
I discovered my passion for cooking when I was still in college and after working in hospitality and living abroad for a couple of years, I started my career in the kitchen as a self-taught cook, opening a small bistro in my hometown. There, I cooked, prepared desserts and managed the kitchen that served a 28-seat restaurant.
After two years, I felt the need to deepen my knowledge and enrolled the Culinary Arts Course in EHT Porto, from which I graduated with distinction. This had a great impact on the way I am in a kitchen and prepared me to work in different kitchen environments.
After culinary school I took part of the team at an organic micro-seasonal café (Época Café) for two years. I cooked breakfast and lunch, baked fresh cakes, desserts and sourdough bread. Shortly after starting there I became responsible for the daily bread production. Along with the experience of working in a fast-paced café, during my employement at Época I became more aware of the importance of local and seasonal sourcing of ingredients, getting to know your producers and where and how your food is grown. During this time I also came in contact with all sorts of fermentations and other preserving techniques as a way of reducing food waste.
After Época, I’ve embraced some projects as a Chef Consultant for local businesses, creating, testing, adapting and costing recipes to their needs, re-designing menus and training the teams. As a personal hobbie I like to spend some time improving my skills at food photography and styling.
Ana Guimarães 
