‘There’s always a beautiful dream becoming reality’ — meet Petites Gourmandises

Based in three different cities scattered across Europe; Cristina, Claudia and Eli are the dream long-distance foodie and lifestyle team. By combining their creativity, love of good food and passion for life’s most beautiful and simple things, The Petites unearth the best culinary options each city they reside in and travel to has to offer. Petites Gourmandises translates to ‘little foodies’, and while the trio don’t claim to be expert gastronomic critics, Team Khoollect sure do follow their recommendations religiously.

Over on their beautifully curated website, you’ll find delicious recipes to cook at home, tried and tested restaurant reviews and unique city guides with the trio’s personal insights from each city they travel to. Best of all, today on Khoollect you get to discover their favourite spots to eat out at, what inspires the food they make and how they go about running an inspiring and purpose-driven blog.

Get to know the small foodies with big hearts …

Tell us about Petites Gourmandises, how did it start and who’s involved in the blog? 

We are three little foodies that have been on this challenging but fun adventure for two years. From the beginning, our only aim was to become a truly ‘tried and tested’ foodie guide; discovering and writing about hidden gems in every city we visit. Since then it’s been an experimental process, developing different strands of Petites to express what we’re into and ultimately create something that’s personal, cosy and authentic. We love eating healthy, fitness (well some of us!), beautiful design and home-cooking, so that’s what we post about. If what we do inspires someone, then we’re happy!

Where in the world do you live?

We are spread out between Barcelona, Madrid and London. Although Claudia is more of a world citizen as she’s constantly travelling, which is actually pretty useful for all our little city guides.

You share delicious (and nutritious!) recipes on Petites Gourmandises, what inspires your way of cooking?

Our recipes are inspired by the seasons, or rather by what’s ripe and ready for us to cook with. We like to start with locally sourced organic produce. So, we’ll get seasonal ingredients and then it’s time for head-scratching, experimenting or going through mum’s cookbook notes to update a classic Mediterranean dish into something fresh-feeling, tasty and healthy. The process doesn’t start from a recipe but actually the other way round.

Right now we are really into experimenting with superfoods, working them into our recipes and discovering their benefits. We’re not about over-complicated preparation that takes hours, and we’ll never go searching 100 stores for that one missing ingredient. We’d say our cooking ‘style’ is easy-tasty-healthy.

What’s your creative process like? Do you have a rigid routine, or do you work when inspiration strikes?

Notes on napkins or thousands of back and forth brainstorming sessions on Whatsapp, writing down ideas whilst standing up squished on the tube, these are the ingredients for our best posts! Ideas come quickly and sometimes they don’t come back, so it’s now or never! You need to jump on them then and there. We’d never think of ourselves as gastro critics, we’re more like storytellers, spinning tales of our experiences around a table and behind the scenes. We love to give a voice to chefs and creators, and discover the concept behind their cuisine. Every week we organise (in a somewhat haphazard fashion) all the content, restaurants we want to go to, events to see and interviews of people who inspire us (from chefs, to designers, to yoga teachers).

What’s coming up for you this year? What are you planning next?

We’ve just collaborated with Barcelona Foodie Fever (the third BCN Foodie Guide) and at the moment we’re working on a set of mini-city guides for the places we’ve been exploring. We’re also doing creative consulting for products that we believe in, and this year we’d like to extend our consulting into working with restaurants. Next month we’re creating healthy eating events, which is all about getting to know local chefs, homemade cuisine and up-and-coming food trends. Check out our site for details!

What do you love most about what you do?

Getting to know what’s behind the inspiration, motivation and soul of a restaurant or a small shop. Having the opportunity to know more about their philosophy and their products from an insider’s point of view. There’s always a beautiful dream becoming reality or one that is already realised, and it’s so exciting to see this through the eyes of the dreamers. So, sharing a glass of wine (sometimes two!) as they tell us about their restaurant or project with a glint in their eye is what we love most about what we do. Understanding that and translating it into the pieces we write and the pictures we take. Then because we’ve got them, and we’ve understood, it is the most gratifying and satisfying part of what we do.

What’s the most challenging thing about running a blog?

Thinking how to make something new and different without losing your essence or losing your way.

What’s your advice for those wanting to start a blog?

Have consistency in what you write about and a core concept of what you want to create. Having a clear aim from the beginning, then pursuing it no matter how much competition is out there. For Petites being honest to our followers is key!

Favourite Instagrammers?

Local Milk for the stunning and creative lighting in her pictures.

RebelRecipes because Niki is a huge inspiration.

ThisMintyMoment for inspiration, shapes, lights, amazing locations… so cool!

QuellaClaudia, her table compositions are just amazing.

NutritionStripped, the most friendly and colourful way of healthy eating.

Piluro, it’s all about light and good vibes!

Favourite places to eat?

This is the most difficult question ever! Let’s mention a few special places around the world: Restaurant de Kas in Amsterdam, because it’s one of the beautiful and tastiest restaurants in Europe! Celeri Barcelona, it’s haute cuisine for vegetable lovers. Aheste Pera in Istanbul if you’d like to try contemporary and excellent Turkish dishes. Petersham Nurseries in Richmond, a little oasis with organic food near London, and Cave 23, a little hidden gem in Lisbon.