She cooks. He critiques.

This is our story of what we create in our 20 sq. ft. kitchen based in San Francisco.  Our kitchen has a small stove (not our dream Viking), a small refrigerator (visualize a bit bigger then the one you had in college) and half of a counter to work on.  We have become very creative with space (hanging wine racks, pot racks, spice racks) as well as pantry use (think European living, no big shopping loads here, everything in the pantry is consumed within a couple of weeks).  We wanted to share with everyone how you can live in a small space and still eat big.

About Us …..

My name is Denise. I confess, I am a foodie. I love everything about food. I love to cook, to read about it, go to food markets & entertain friends and family. I am not in the food business & and my day job is in the video communication field.

My partner is Laudalino. He is not a foodie, he is a consumer as well as a critic (he has an opinion about everything that he puts into his mouth).  He, too, is involved in high tech.

We met 6 years ago, when he was a starving climber & bachelor who longed for his mother’s good Portuguese cooking. They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach; I like to think I got to his heart through many means, cooking just happened to be one of them. He loves my cooking so much that he thinks we never have to dine out again. He is my own personal food critic.

We feel that the right ingredients make all the difference. We prefer to shop organic & local when possible. We care about what we put in our bodies. We (more so, I) also, feel that dinner should be a ceremony to some degree, a coming together after a long day.  Even after a long day, I feel it all brings us together, again, as a couple.

When we are not cooking and eating we try to enjoy life to the fullest by keeping active.  Our passions are traveling to  far away lands, submerging ourselves in the culture and of course eating!  We also love to spend time behind the lens both photo and video.  If you can’t find us in the kitchen, just look out the door and you may find us anywhere in the great outdoors either camping (gourmet  food will be included), road and mountain biking or climbing some of the high peaks.

So come along and join us for some culinary capers.

We would love to hear from you.  You can reach us:

the cook ~ denise@chezus.com

the critic ~ lenny@chezus.com

general inquires (regarding comments, samples, etc…) ~ info@chezus.com