About me

Speaker, writer, cook, consultant, and perpetual immigrant Blanca Valencia was born in Spain, and spent her childhood in Central America. Before settling in Dublin with her Irish husband Steve, Blanca has lived – among other places — Chicago, Dalian, Paris, Virginia, Madrid, Buenos Aires, and London.

Fluent in Spanish, English, French and with a grasp of basic Mandarin, Blanca has a Grand Diplome from Le Cordon Bleu (London), an MA in Gastronomy from TU Dublin, and is a Spanish Wine Specialist and certified olive oil sommelier. She helmed the kitchens of Madrid’s El Alambique and London’s Books for Cooks, has been a regular lecturer at the Cervantes Institutes in Chicago and Dublin, the Chicago Cultural Center and staged at the elbulli Hotel. Previous to her culinary work, Blanca, an economist by training worked in management consultancy. She was the co-host of the award-winning podcast Spice Bags (Irish Food Writing Awards winner 2021 and 2023), which explored international food in the Irish world from 2019 to 2023.  She is also co-author of Blasta Books 5 Soup together with writers Dee Laffan and Mei Chin. Joe McKamee (Irish Examiner) named her one of the 2023’s 50 new Irish food heroes.  Her work has appeared in numerous media outlets like the Irish Independent, Irish Times, Farmer’s Journal, Chicago NPR, Dublin FM, Nuevo Estilo, Saborea Madrid and the BBC.

Her first food memories include eating mango verde from her garden, and the paella that her mother would make on Punta Leona beach in Costa Rica. Also she recollects craving the tin of condensed milk that, when she was a school child in El Salvador, was in her guerilla emergency kit.

What motivates Blanca is to use food to communicate and connect. She ties food together with history, film, fiction, art, and popular culture. Having lived in a number of countries, she is a “perpetual immigrant” – adopting lifestyles and rituals, engendering friendships, but also, throughout her life, she has maintained the perspective of an outsider. Because of this, she engages in tying together – through food and language — the various communities in which she has resided.

Blanca has lived and travelled in places that have made her acutely aware of poverty and political devastation. She recognizes that there are people who might love food, but are limited in their resources. It was this that motivated her to work for Chicago’s non-profit Common Threads and Purple Asparagus and to volunteer to teach hundreds of children how to make cookies through the City of Madrid and present Spanish Food Culture to transition students through the Trinity Access programs in Dublin. And while she relishes the romance of the culinary world, she constantly asks: what are the nuts and bolts of making great food available to everyone?

Photo Credit: Mel Mullan

Recent Work