About Us

Hello, my name is Armanda. I was born in Angola, Africa. Because of the civil war in Angola, I moved to Portugal, my grandfather's country, in 1975 with my mum, my two sisters and my first cousin. My father had to stay behind; he was detained by the military government at the time, as all men and woman with skills had to stay. I have made my home in Australia and I have become Australian, with flavour!

Qualified Chef

I took my apprenticeship as a chef in Portugal from the age of 14. I worked part-time while, I studied full time, because I wanted to finish my year 12 no matter what. I qualified with fine results at the age of 18, simply because I put in the hard work. My dad always told us to put 110% to get 100% back, so when I finished high school I was qualified to work in 5 star hotels and restaurants. I won a contest and became the youngest “chef of the year “at the age of 17, even before I was a qualified chef.

Background

I came to Australia at the age of 24 with my family; my husband René, my daughter, Dalila, and I was pregnant with my second daughter, Mellissa. My first jobs were at The Esplanade Hotel in Fremantle, The Oyster Bed in East Fremantle, The Trade Winds Hotel in East Fremantle, The Matilda Bay Restaurant in Crawley and Channel 9 in Perth. While at the Esplanade and Trade Winds. I won the silver medal at the Chefs Competition SALON COLINEIR.

I started my range of sauces when a friend that I was supposed to be meeting for coffee took 2 hours in the supermarket looking at ingredients in jars and bottles because she had coeliac’s disease (allergic to cereal and gluten) and she was also a diabetic (sugar makes her really ill). I made her buy all the fruit and vegetables her diet allowed her to eat. We went home to her place and cooked everything and put it all in containers. She was so happy that she started to place orders for herself and her friends. And that is how my sugar-, flour- and vinegar free cooking of sauces began.

Range of products

I have a range of delicious, affordable products. Some now contain brown sugar or palm sugar, but they all are gluten free and 100% vegetarian. I have sauces for pasta, rice, brouchetta, cheese. If you are not vegetarian, you can add: mussels, prawns, fish, chicken, lamb, pork or beef, etc to create wonderful dishes within minutes.