Olá! I am Luciana!
But people know me as Lucy
read my story
The “carioca” way of life – Welcome to Rio de Janeiro: the city I was born and raised.
Differently of the most people think about Rio, I grew up and lived far away from the famous beaches and beautiful landscapes. High temperatures, botequins full of people, live music, street food, crazy traffics, poverty, shootings, football and Carnival - this is the Rio that I know – the suburb - and I lived my whole life!
Until the moment that I decided to spend 8 months abroad…
A big step that has changed my whole life: Hi Daniël and The Netherlands.
For those who doesn’t know, I am graduated in Biology. During my PhD I had an opportunity to study abroad in Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Throughout my internship I met one of the most important person in my life, Daniël.
But after 4 months together I had to come back to Brazil. It was a painful farewell. When we would see each other again? No clue…but we kept in touch, every day.
Meanwhile I had just a few months to finish my thesis, with no job at all. In this scenario I was struggling to earn some money and trying to figure out a way to be together again.
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And that is how all this story begins…
From biologist to a homebaker
The end of my PhD was a moment of great reflection because I was exhausted and not happy, what made me think in my abilities in life – what else am I able to do besides be a researcher?
One of the things that cross my mind was cooking because it was my new hobby at that moment.
Believe or not, I didn’t know how to cook until I was 28! Brownies were something that I was passionate about and I was trying different recipes a couple of times.
My friends from my work really liked! So, one day, I baked a pan of brownies and I walked around my neighborhood for 1h offering my brownies to people in the streets until sold out. It was a crazy, uncomfortable and frightening experience!
After that I kept selling them in small amounts for friends, on internet, in the university… until I realize that I was much happier baking brownies than being a scientist.
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This was the moment.
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That’s how the idea of Brownies da Lucy has born.
New home, new life: a change of seasons
Moving to Netherlands was one of the biggest changes in my life. New country, new language, new culture…I saw myself in a great opportunity to start over about my career.
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I wanted to learn more about patisserie, but how to do that in another country? It was a tough decision to make.
I left Biology behind, I started working in a restaurant, then in a chocolate store. This way I could work and learn at same time.
Through these jobs I have learned about patisserie, chocolate and bakery. I followed courses in the area. Meanwhile, Brownies da Lucy was becoming real. I started baking brownies again and sell to friends, and friends of friends. The word has been spread! And baking my sweeties was not a temporary job anymore.
On 5th July 2018 I registered Brownies da Lucy in the Dutch Chamber of Commerce to start my own company!
Welcome to my dream,
Brownies da Lucy!
A need that became a passion; a passion that became a way of life.
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I always loved chocolate, in a way that I always had a small bar in my backpack. Maybe because Brazilians are passionate for sweets.
But I never imagined myself baking my own sweeties. When I started this journey I had no intention to stay. It supposed to be a temporary task.
But I found myself in this trip, bringing smile to people’s face with the sweeties made by myself. This is what drives me in this trajectory.
Search, create and run experiments in my kitchen are, somehow, my new way to be scientist! And that is what I do to bring the loveliest sweeties for you.
