many many years ago - i stepped into a beautiful and delicate shop in my hometown - called violas. honestly i went inside, because i instantly wanted to move in - the window display was a dream came true… all colorful and vivid - at that time, i of course had no clue, that this shop was owned by a wonderful, inspirational woman, who i herewith introduce to you! the shop sells all that supports kitchen and food dreams. a super looser like me - when it comes to cooking and baking - seems like a superhero with the little helpers of violas!
welcome on my magic carpet, mrs. viola fuchs!

Q: when it comes to spices - which color is your favorite?

A: when you think of spices it is always very dark brown and not very bright. the only color which brings some light is curcuma, it is bright orange. so i use this a lot. the wide variety of nature brings us all the beautiful colors, but when you dry the nature it looses its color. so i need to find really high quality and fresh dried spices, because they have great colors and a wonderful taste. my favorite color is pink. so i’am using a lot of beetroot to get pink spice mixtures. but of course i’am using the wide variety of spices, to produce violas’ spice seasonings.

Q: is there a smell which calms you down or makes you happy?

A: vanilla is always wonderful to smell. it reminds me of my childhood. i grew up in the spiceshop of my grandparents and in the early days vanilla was very rare and expensive (like these days), but my grandparents used to sell it. so if my grandma got a new delivery of vanilla she allowed me to smell it. what a wonderful smell. it still reminds me of family, happiness and how wonderful nature is.

Q: is cooking a kind of relaxation for you and could it mean stress as well?

A: actually cooking is both for me. i have three children, age 14 and twins age 10. sometimes it is really hard to please them with the right food. if i have to cook during the week, it is very stressful to find the right recipe which they all like. pasta always works, but the sauce is difficult. one wants pesto, one wants tomatosauce and the other one wants salad.
but when we cook on weekends, we are all planning together and we are cooking together. the kids love to cook. so the love to eat what the have prepared and cooked for all. that is really cool to see, how much fun the kids have and how proud they are. so cooking on the weekend is a lot of fun and pleasure. and sometimes we are creating new spicerecipes out of such a cooking event.

Q: do you listen to music while you cook? if yes - which kind of songs?

A: i love to cook with smooth jazz. it is my favorite, which calms me down. the kids are not so happy with this. but i'am the boss!

Q: whom would you love to cook for?

A: i would love to cook with: on instagram i’am following some strong women. so it would be wonderful to get them together and cook for and with them. like liebesbotschaft, sophie_je_suis, sissihardenberg and of course you yasmin_von_schlieffen and so on…...
there are so many cool women outside. i would love to cook with all of them… angelina jolie, but i think she hardly eats.
i’am a great fan of heidi klum, because i think she knows what she wants and she has made a wonderful career. but with her kids she is down to earth and she loves cooking. so that would be a hugh adventure to cook with her or for her.

Q: which is your favorite travel destination and if you travel - do you bring lots of inspirations back?

A: that is a very hard question to answer, because there are so many places in the world i’d like to be or i’d like to go. i love going to the big cities, like new york, london or paris. but i love going to mallorca aswell. i believe every trip gives you new vibes, new ideas and new inspirations. it is the fact that you need to leave your usual ways to find new inspirations. but you need to be open to see all the new inspirations. i love traveling a lot, it is always great to see something new and experience different countries and different foods. i love to eat crazy combinations and i’am very inspired by tasting and eating that. like fried ants or other unusual things.