In every age there has been a stream of popular opinion that has carried all before it and given a family character as it were to the century.

My inspiration was my mom. She's a great cook and she still cooks and we still banter back and forth about cooking. Growing up in a mostly Portuguese community food was important and the family table was extremely important. At a very young age I understood that.

I was born in ancient times at the end of the world in a patriarchal Catholic and conservative family. No wonder that by age five I was a raging feminist - although the term had not reached Chile yet so nobody knew what the heck was wrong with me.

As you age naturally your family shows more and more on your face. If you deny that you deny your heritage.