Olivia Mesquita is the creator of Olivia’s Cuisine, a recipe website that features comfort food dishes from all over the world. Born and raised in São Paulo, Brazil, she inherited her love of homemade food and cooking from her grandmother, Marilda (who was known by all as “Manuda,” since Olivia couldn’t pronounce “Marilda” when she first learned to speak).
When she moved to New York City in 2010, Olivia encountered a challenge: the ingredients that she would need to make the Brazilian recipes that were near and dear to her heart were not widely available in supermarkets in Manhattan and required a long subway trip to Brazilian stores in Queens or Newark (or her mother smuggling a suitcase full of food through customs every time she came to visit). So she took it upon herself to adapt her family recipes, modifying them so they could be prepared with ingredients that she could find at her local grocery store.
