Blog 1: How do you feel when you reach out to a brand?

1 May 2017 By Gina Ditrapani

When I first wrote to Latasha to say I had read about her products and wanted to know where I could buy them near where I live, the lovely lady herself sent me a detailed reply. Right from our first communication, she was instantly recognisable, even in an email! What you see is what you get … the brand is the woman is the brand and so on.

Since then, I’ve tried quite a few of the Latasha’s Kitchen products and I can’t say enough wonderful things about them. In the past, I’ve done the supermarket brands; I’ve tried making curry pastes myself; I’ve bought from markets and high end ingredients retailers. Latasha’s are absolutely “the bomb” as the cool kids say! When I cook with them, my home is infused with luscious aromas. Twice, my neighbours have called me to ask what on earth I’m cooking in here!

The ongoing connection

As a professional copywriter, it’s my absolute pleasure to have been invited to write blog posts for Latasha’s Kitchen, not just because it’s what I do for a living but also because when I love a brand, I really love it. I tell the world, I share my experiences and I give back through loyalty. I’m about to tell you a little about myself because I’m going to hang around a while.

To be or not to be a true foodie

So many people today consider themselves ‘foodies’. Well I love food too but if being a foodie means to love spending hours in the kitchen dreaming up new dishes, experimenting with recipes, or spending small fortunes on ingredients, then I’d have to count myself out. For me, cooking is not a thrill-a-minute activity. The three things I want most are:

1. Convenience
2. Simplicity
3. Results

Oh, and I don’t want to struggle to come up with what to cook for dinner or eat for lunch. Show me a person who plans meals a week in advance and sticks to it and I’ll give them a trophy. I’ve always admired people who seem to have it all together when it comes to feeding the hungry hordes. I think I muddle through most of the time. Quite often, I’ll put a call out among my Facebook friends and ask: “What did you have for dinner last night?” I long ago gave up asking: “What are you cooking tonight?” because invariably, everyone would say they had no idea. But ask what they’ve already put on the table in recent memory and they’ll have an answer.

Recipes are open to interpretation

I know a couple of home cooks who measure every last gram of flour, millilitre of milk and quarter cup of rice. I’m more a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants home cook. “Near enough is good enough or I simply don’t want to make it” is my mantra. Sure, sometimes baked goods need greater accuracy so I usually toe the line there. But when it comes to soups, pasta sauces, curries, slow cooker dishes, roasts, salads and lots of other recipes, customising to your own taste is an important element of the process. Plus, sometimes you need to find ways to use up those manky carrots that are whimpering in the bottom of the crisper drawer, or find something to do with an over-supply of tomatoes your dear old Italian uncle grew in his garden. So, you make it up as you go – and sometimes you just hope for the best!

Hold the sugar, pile on the butter!

For me, sugar is out and butter is in. I follow a diet called LCHF (Low Carb High Fat). Basically, I eat whole foods that are minimally processed, if at all, and stick to under 20 grams of carbohydrates per day. Well, at a carb count that low, it’s actually known as a ‘ketogenic diet’. I’ll address this more in later posts but if you Google it, you’ll learn more. I don’t eat fruit but I eat lots of vegetables. I don’t eat rice, pasta, bread, cakes, biscuits, muffins, pizza or other carb-heavy, grain-based foods. I consume great quality proteins such as grass fed beef, free range chicken and pork and beautiful fresh fish. Oh, and butter. Butter is crammed with goodness and healthy fats. Again, Google LCHF and you’ll see.

Thank goodness for Latasha’s Kitchen!

And I really mean “thank goodness”. Latasha’s products are the real deal. They’re wholesome and natural and completely honest. I know I’m getting value for money because there are no filler ingredients, bulking agents or artificial flavours. MSG gives me a nasty headache so I’m grateful for the fact that Latasha knows flavour and doesn’t have to rely on that kind of rubbish to turn out a spectacular meal. When you turn your diet upside down and need inspiration to keep you motivated and focused, you soon find products you can trust and you hold them dear.

I look forward to telling you more about my kitchen adventures, how I use Latasha’s Kitchen products, how they can fit within other ways of eating and I might even expose a couple of cooking failures I’ve had in the past. Buon appetite and check back soon!