An Interview With Melissa Llarena

Where does our food come from? How mindful are we about the food we purchase and consume? What is conscious gastronomy and how is it one step closer to the achievement of an equitable food system across the world, which subsequently falls under every other form of power dynamics? Eleni Michael is on a mission to answer these questions and educate the public for a better food future. Listen to the end because we go on to discuss how Eleni got into the food industry (hint: by creatively following her curiosities) in the first place given that neither of her parents were in the field.   Eleni was raised by internally displaced refugee parents, who lost their homes from the Turkish Invasion of Cyprus in 1974; their country has always been under occupation or control of some other state, and that is deeply reflected in their food system.   At the age of 18, she left Cyprus to study abroad where she completed her first degree in International Hospitality and Tourism from the University of Surrey and the Polytechnic