Hi there,

I’m Marie, a French Canadian living abroad in Spain, for more than 15 years now, with my German husband and two kids.  I’m a self proclaimed “FoodOlic” because I find it really challenging spending a few days without creating something new in the kitchen or discovering new flavors, techniques, ingredients – anything related to food.

This is why I’ve called this food blog: “Foodaholic” or more precisely the way a French speaker would pronounce it “FoodOlic”. Like most French”ies”, the airy h‘s are too difficult to pronounce in English, so we rather pronounce the vocal louder. That’s why I’ve used a capital letter “O” and cut the “h“. Result “The FoodOlic”.

I grew up in a small coastal town, called Baie-Comeau, up on the North Shore region of Quebec, Canada. A far far away place where -30 C° (-22°F) in winter is the norm. However, a beautiful hidden gem with unforgettable scenery. Living far away didn’t stop my parents from making us travel as kids, for me and my siblings a 5 hours drive to the next big city was considered a “short trip”. My parents helped us discover the love of the unknown and food was a big part of that. That’s when I started my love story with food.

I remember my first croissant in Paris, still fluffy warm and buttery, my first real slice of Italian pizza, my first Swiss chocolate bar, my first Spanish churro dip in dark chocolate, my first Mexican taco, I could go on and on… those were all eye opening, exotic food for a girl from the North Pole.

As a teenager, I moved out of my parents place at 16 years-old to study ‘Infography’ in Montreal, where I lived for 7 years. This city is filled with food from everywhere, a great place to experiment with your tastebuds.

Later on, I met my partner in Panama and started to live a bit of everywhere, from Peru, Colombia, passing by Vietnam, Germany and finally Spain. In each place, I’ve learned a tremendous amount about their respective cuisines; new techniques, ingredients, traditions, etc.

Right now, we have settled for another gastronomic city: Barcelona! Here, my love for food grew exponentially, so I decided to take a year of basic cooking training course at Hofmann’s culinary school. I’ve learned a great deal there from basic mother sauces to traditional Spanish/Mediterranean cuisine and some fun extras like ‘sushi making’.

My favorite hobby is to pick up a vegetable or any seasonal product from the market which I’ve never seen before and experiment with it. I usually mix a few recipes and research flavor profiles that fit the protagonist food and create something out of it. Sometimes it turns into a “catastrophe”, other times into a recipe for this food blog.

The FoodOlic recipes are for people, like me, who want to discover new flavors and switch up their same old recipes and revive their repertoires. I do make the occasional “traditional” dish, which are in the ‘destinations’ section, these are recipes I’ve mastered from countries I’ve lived in or have a really good understanding of.

Hope you’ll enjoy surfing around my recipes!

*If you happen to come and visit Barcelona, Spain in the near future and would like a guide to bring you around to taste some of the best tapas in town, I would be more than happy to help you out! Simply leave me a message in the ‘Contact me‘ section with all your info, dates, etc. and I’ll answer you right back. Maybe even come by for a ‘copa de vino’.