Pura Vita is a way of life an interview with Gabriela Giumba

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PURA VITA IS A WAY OF LIFE

An interview with Gabriela Giumba (By E. Gladstone)

I have recently had the pleasure of meeting Gabriela in her new restaurant, “Pura Vita” in Sotogrande, to discover the real meaning of “Vegan Cuisine”.

I asked her to tell me what prompted her to start the restaurant. “I started cooking during the pandemic times and I discovered the love of cooking that runs in my family from my grandmother and my mother. When I was a child, “she added, “I spent hours in the kitchen with them, just watching them, it was like a dream for me. I preferred staying in the kitchen to going outside playing with the children. Traditional Rumanian cuisine is extensive, diverse and delicious, “she continued, “I feel like my grandmother is guiding me and motivating me”.

“The restaurant concept is the result of a natural progression of events. I was suffering from anxiety and feeling depressed” she said “then I found that cooking made feel better so I began to spend hours in my small home kitchen cooking Rumanian traditional dishes, mainly my grandmother’s recipes, and asking everyone I knew to try them.

As my range of dishes increased, I started to think of the treatment that animals must endure to end up on our tables, of the environment and the health of people. They say you are what you eat, so I made it my task to do something to improve the lifestyle of future generations and create a healthy menu. Can you imagine being re-incarnated as a chicken?

I have converted all of my Grandmother’s recipes into 100% Pure Vegan dishes. I mean I have recreated not just the dishes but most importantly each and every ingredient that goes into them. I also make my own videos to show how each step of the preparation. Amazingly I got 7.4 million ‘Likes’ and 200,000 followers online. I was even invited to appear on Rumanian TV.

I did start to write a book but I live here, not in Rumania” she added “and Sotogrande seemed to be the obvious and ideal place to open my restaurant, an affluent, multinational residential area”.

“Why not Madrid?” I asked “Hopefully I am on my way there” she answered. “Right now I am spending most of my time here in the kitchen supervising, training and teaching the staff. Eventually I may look to expand in San Pedro or Nueva Andalucía or Estepona. Thanks to my husband and his vast experience in the restaurant business I am lucky to have the right backing.”

While chatting, the head waiter brought an omelette dish for us to try. “Go ahead, try this, what do you think?” she said.

It looked like a thin folded over omelette, filled with a mixed salad and feta cheese. And it tasted excellent but what is important it that it was 100% vegan, no eggs and no cheese. It really tasted like an egg omelette, including the feta!

This was followed with a plate of spaghetti carbonara with parmesan cheese. It looked and tasted great, as it was meant to.

“You should try my Sushi Salmon” she said “I am adding new dishes to the menu on a weekly basis. I think I have been given an opportunity to see people enjoying really healthy food while helping them to change their life style and do away with animal products and by-products.

She paused here for a moment then said: - “If the creation and presentation of my dishes is comparable to painting, then you could say that I also create my own colours to paint with. When I create the required ingredients, every single ingredient I use has to be re-created with absolute precision so as to taste and look as it is intended. Even the wine we serve here is certified 100% vegan.”

I found this meeting with Gabriela not just interesting but also instructive, she is a profound thinker, very reserved and fully dedicated to her vocation. Personally I never thought it was possible to make an omelette with no eggs that looked and tasted like an omelette.

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