Jungle’s Roots’ MANIFESTO

As this is the first article that we are sharing on Jungle´s Roots Blog, nice to have you here.

“We” stands for Elton and Tahiba Melina, the creators of Jungle Brazil Catering and The Jungle House.

We are two Brazilians based in #Amsterdam as we chose those lowlands to call home many years ago. We cook and sell inspired #Brazilianfood mostly with Dutch local ingredients.

Here is Tahiba writing, and I wanted to kick our blog with our manifesto about food; as short as a twitter post.

“We came from the Jungle to stay. We will feed our community with good food and excellent hospitality as a way of showing affection, sharing experiences and creating memories as an ecosystem. We are spreading our roots through our pathway in the world.”

And if you are interested, I will tell you about what to expect from me on this blog, storytelling about my own roots.

I have been cooking since I was eight years old. And my connection with food and kitchen was settled not only on cooking, but also on learning, reading, testing recipes as well as showing natural curiosity about the kitchen work and contributing to knowledge exchange to my family’s household, updating traditions. I consider myself a self-taught chef. During my life I have been mastering feeding people by honouring each ingredient I have to prepare a meal, calculating quantities, kitchen economy, event planning and passing by heritage.

I have roots in the North and South of #Brazil, I was born by the intersection of two big South American family branches, with my genealogical tree mixing native brazilians from the North and Northeast of Brazil, with Bolivian and Spanish, and also with German and Italian as South Brazilian Immigrants. We would gather to celebrate different moments through life: #birthdays, passage rituals, #weddings, holidays and also through funerals and religious celebrations to our ancestors. Preparing a feast, eating and drinking together was the highlight of those moments.

My father’s grand family can easily fill a eight hundred people capacity venue, if we would put together siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles. On my mom’s side, although most of my relatives are spread all over Brazil and abroad, the reality would be the same: a large group connected by affection, memories and food. 

I am that kind of mixture that allows cross-cultural unique experiences, increased by the many books I always had around me. I learned to cook mainly with my female ancestors: my grandmother, my mom, my aunties. We used to cook as a team. I remember being led by those women cooking for a small crowd during weekends and family celebrations and holidays. From the men of my family I learned how to master cooking with charcoal and fire controlling during barbecue, o Churrasco, one of the biggest cultural manifestations in Brazil. I am in permanent learning. I have completed my studies by learning classic techniques from French, Italian, English, Middle eastern and International cuisines.

This blog is about that, our roots, our bases. That ethereal energy that is transmitted by our ancestors and their pathway through the world. 

Together with friends and collaborators, we want to tell you stories about the food we are selling on Jungle Brazil Catering and serving amazing experiences on #thehouseofjungle. We will share recipes, history and tips for event planning. 

Hope you stay with us. To interact, follow us on our social media, subscribe to our newsletter and keep in touch to contribute to spreading our roots.