PEABODY – Portuguese-American chef and cookbook author Ana Patuleia Ortins said she almost passed on an opportunity of a lifetime to teach her recipes in the United Arab Emirates because she initially thought it was a joke.
“I was completely floored,” she told O Jornal. “The last thing I expected was to go to the Middle East.”
But it was not a prank.
The invitation to be one of the 12 chefs from nine countries featured in the Cookery Corner of Sharjah Children’s Reading Festival was made through her publisher.
The annual festival, which takes place in the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates under the guidance of the ruler of Sharjah and his wife, offers an expansive program for both children and adults that includes workshops, live demonstrations, talks, author meet-and-greets and plenty of books.
Ortins, who lives in Peabody, Mass., was invited for an 11-day visit in May and do cooking demonstrations over the course of three days. She told them she could only go for eight days because her husband has a health condition, and she didn’t want to leave him for too long.
“This was an exciting thing, and I really was so thrilled,” she said. “It’s always been my mission for over 30 years to share our wonderful [Portuguese] food with anyone who is willing to learn. This was such an honor, for them to ask me to come there. And they offered to pay all the expenses: the plane, business class on Emirates airline, the hotel, all my food, all my transportation. How do you say no to all of that?”
With the help of two professional assistants at her disposition, she cooked several Portuguese dishes and desserts.
“They have a different diet than we do, so I had to adjust some of the recipes,” she said. “No pork, no alcohol and no poppy seeds.”
She prepared caldo verde (green soup), sopa de cenoura (carrot soup), chicken with rice, black-eyed bean salad with tuna, esparregado de espinafre (puree of spinach, flour and milk), sweet rice, and farófias (cream puffs), among other delicacies.
“I wanted to do bacalhau com cebolada (codfish with onions), but they don’t get bacalhau that easily. So, we just substituted with grouper,” she said. “Any dishes that take chouriço, I left it out.”
She decided to make farófias with pomegranate sauce.
“I switched it to make it look more contemporary and because in the Middle East they use a lot of pomegranates,” Ortins said. “I wanted to utilize something they could include from their own diet. And they loved it. They asked questions and were very interested. It was a great feeling to have them appreciate our food.”
She doesn’t know exactly how many people savored her creations, but she said it was a considerable amount as this was a huge event. The festival, which took place between May 3 and 14, attracted about 122,000 visitors.
“The whole place was packed with people,” she said. “There were people asking for second and third helpings. They loved everything. It was such a great feeling to be there and show them our food.”
Passion in the kitchen inspired by her father
Born and raised in Peabody, Ortins discovered her love for Portuguese food because of her father, Rufino, who immigrated here in the 1930s from the small town of Galveias in the Alto Alentejo region, mainland Portugal.
His cooking, coupled with the dishes passed down from her mother, Filomena, inspired her to learn about her culinary roots and document the recipes of Portuguese immigrants in her first book Portuguese Homestyle Cooking.
Her most recent book Authentic Portuguese Cooking includes more than 185 classic Mediterranean-style recipes of the Azores, Madeira and Continental Portugal, some of them passed down from family, friends, and many others she encountered on various trips to Portugal.
She is currently working on her third cookbook.
“I have to go through a couple more edits,” she said. “I’m just playing around with it right now, and there are some recipes I might take out.”
What will she be focusing on this time?
“I’m not telling,” she said laughing.
Honored to have her cookbooks at the House of Wisdom
Ortins was delighted to share her cooking skills and recipes half a world away – getting her two cookbooks into the House of Wisdom library was just icing on the cake.
In 2019, Sharjah was UNESCO’s World Book Capital, and the House of Wisdom – the city’s iconic cultural hub – was built as the living legacy of that title.
“They are the first Portuguese cookbooks in that library,” Ortins said. “That says a lot.”
Valuable learning experience
While in the United Arab Emirates, Ortins had the chance to network with chefs from other cultures.
“They had Indian, Japanese, Australian, Moroccan, Egyptian chefs… It was a mix, I was surprised they didn’t have anyone Italian,” she said. “It was a great interaction with everybody, and a great opportunity to spread the word about our delicious Portuguese food.”
And she took the opportunity to learn a few things.
“We shared and bounced things off one another, which was great,” she said. “I have been a chef for over 30 years, but I feel like you can always learn something from someone else or another culture.”
When she was not cooking, she got to explore the country’s culture and sights.
“It was an adventure, I even rode a camel,” she said. “I went on a safari, and I went to the desert and rode the dune buggies. Then we went to a campsite and watched the sunset in the desert. It was absolutely beautiful.”
On the campsite, she enjoyed a barbecue featuring some of the local favorite dishes – grilled lamb, chicken, beef, rice, and hummus.
“I could see a lot of the spices that we use,” she said. “I think that’s why they really enjoyed our food.”
She also did some shopping, but not at the big swanky shopping centers the country is known for. Instead, she went to specialty shops and the spice market.
“Egyptian rice, spices and fresh dates, that’s what I bought,” she said. “I had them all prepackaged up, and they came through customs without a problem.”
Ortins, who teaches culinary classes and enjoys volunteering as a cook at a local food pantry, said she’ll forever cherish this incredible adventure in the Middle East and the opportunity to bring forth a deeper look into the food of her heritage.
“This trip was an experience of a lifetime,” she said. “I feel like it was the feather in my hat. I don’t know how I could top that.”
For more information about Ana Patuleia Ortins, visit https://portuguesecooking.com
Lurdes C. da Silva may be reached at ldasilva@ojornal.com. To read more stories about the Portuguese-speaking community, in English and Portuguese, please visit ojornal.com.