Hi everybody, I’m a former journalist and speechwriter from the Philippines who moved to Madrid, Spain in 2008. Since last year, I have been working with refugees from different parts of the world, including Syria, Palestine, The Gambia and The Ukraine among others, in projects that help them integrate better into the Madrid community.

I realized that what bonds us all together, in spite of our diverse backgrounds and life experiences, is the universal language of food. I had come to learn about their life stories and struggles - the stuff of novels - during our meals together. As an example, while sharing a beer with one of the Syrian refugees, waiting for vegetables to bake in the oven, he told me about his 8-day hike to the Jordanian border while he had two bullets embedded in his foot. Another chef refugee - "chefugee" had shared with me about his experience working for a sandwich shop in Cairo in exchange for sleeping in a taxi for free.

I’ve also learned a lot about their own cuisine when they would talk about how much they missed the food from their home country.

Their stories compelled me to start interviewing them for a volunteers’ blog. But I thought that it was high time their stories and recipes were shared to a wider audience, hence this foray into book writing!

It’s an ambitious goal, but I believe in this project. I want to tell the stories of all the wonderful souls I’m working with now, pay homage to their cultures, and give them the dignity they deserve. I also plan to donate most of my earnings to the Madrid for Refugees association.

Food is refuge, after all.