Welcome to Nourish by Lu

Hello and welcome to Nourish by Lu!

I’m Lucie but you can call me Lu.

Who am I?

I was born in China but grew up in France. I am married to a French guy who makes us travel the world with his job. We have lived in China as a family of four and are currently living in Mexico City as a family of five plus our gato macho.

The kitchen is my happy place; it’s where I go when I need to wind down or conversely to cheer me up. There is something therapeutic about cooking. It was exactly from the comfort of my kitchen that I started to give private cooking classes in 2018. Prior to that, I was sharing some of my recipes on my former blog called Lu En Aparté since 2016. I was also sharing our journey to adopting a slower lifestyle on that blog.

In a “previous” life, I worked in a leading sensors company where I was dual-hatted as Communication and Marketing Manager covering the EMEA area and Customer Representative for the Asia-Pacific area.

Facts about me

• While I was born in China, I consider French to be my mother tongue and Spanish is the last addition to the several languages I have learned
• I have a Master degree in International Business, hold an MBA from the University of Durham UK and I am a certified holistic nutritionist
• I grew up in Paris and have been living in big cities my entire life but secretly dream of living in a farmhouse where I’d grow my own fruits and vegetables and have some laying hens
• Nourish by Lu is only about sharing the recipes I create but I will always make waste reduction a top priority in our life
• My favourite non-kitchen related accessory is a mat red lipstick but I always end up with some stain on my chin after I ate..

  

What is Nourish by Lu all about?

Nourish by Lu is a food blog. The recipes I share here are family recipes that I develop in my small rental kitchen. They are all tested and approved by my family prior to publishing.

Most of my recipes are mostly influenced by my Chinese heritage – my mum is an awesome cook and could have anyone eat an entire meal even without being hungry – and our travels in Asian.

My goal with Nourish by Lu is to help you “demystify” Asian cuisine. No, adding a little bit of soy sauce to your soup does not make it ‘an Asian soup’… There’s no such thing as an Asian soup to be honest. It’s like I would publish a soup recipe that I’d call “My European soup”, it would sound strange right?

So, you can expect a lot of Asian recipes on my blog. But not only as I love food too much to exclude any yumminess from all around the world. Most importantly I want them to be well balanced, flavourful, easy to follow, and nourishing!

The notion of nourishment in the Chinese cuisine

Nourishment 营养 (ying yang) is a fundamental characteristic of the traditional Chinese cuisine. Chinese people used to have a high health consciousness through food – and actually still do and see it as a way of promoting good health or a mean of therapy in case of illness by incorporating healing herbs and/or animal parts.

Though today’s lifestyle drastically changed Chinese people’s eating habits, the notion of healthy eating didn’t change much though. Dinner now became the most important meal of the day where the entire family (often made several generations) gather together to enjoy a hearty and well-balanced meal.

A typical meal consists of 4 dishes and a soup 四菜一汤 (si cai yi tang). It is generally composed of two vegetables, one fish or seafood, one meat and one soup that we eat with a bowl of rice. All bringing a balance in terms of tastes (salty, sweet, spicy, sour …) and textures.

Where to start?

Follow me on Instagram where you can find many of my recipes. I intend to republish them here so I can go into more details with more captions hoping to make them as comprehensive as possible. But in the meantime, this is definitely the place to start to explore my culinary world! Don’t have Instagram, follow me on Facebook! You can also drop me an email here

Disclaimer: though I am a certified holistic nutritionist, Nourish by Lu is my personal blog where I share one recipe at a post and do not intend to provide medical or nutritional advice. Should you need any support, please get in touch with your health practitioner.