About Me
Hi everyone,
I’m Grazyna– a Northern woman born in a land of mist and frost, mountains and the cold sea-Poland. I was shaped by precision and restraint finding a true joy in the golden sun of Southern Puglia.
My Salento story goes back to the end of ‘80s when I set foot on this land for the first time. It wasn’t easy: I knew nothing about Italians and Italy and I was pregnant with a second child. At that time, I barely could say something in Italian, approached Italian food with scepticism and… suffered from scorching temperature. Fortunately, there was the Ionian Sea, yeah!
Italian language, food and Italian culture built up in me with time changing my mindset and becoming part of myself. My daughters at the age of 5 & 6 learned swimming in the Ionian Sea, and…from my sisters-in-law I learned how to cook and… eat raw mussels (sic!).
Moka coffee style became my friend for life 😊that together with a famous coffee machine Bialetti (I had them quite a few) have always been travelling with me.
This amazing and unforgettable life experience led me to like eating eventually. I found delicacy and even beauty in matching food together, like grapes & cheese, and understood eventually that food it’s creation; so, I found an artistic and colourful dimension in it. Definitely, thanks to Italy the picky eater- Grazyna- has come to an end 😊.
Thus, in the mid ‘90s having a marital separation behind, I brought to my home country new eating habits: olive oil, le lasagne, home-made pizza, ricotta, parmesan, new veggies like rucola or aubergines, moka caffe, fruits of all kind, aperitivo (Campari/ Aperol Spritz) and WATER. Oh yes, at that time water wasn’t a common drink in Poland. Although Polish cuisine is not that bad at all, I shifted our eating patterns, and even my very traditional daddy – a family chef – started to appreciate Italian food. I swear! It was a proper revolution.
Italian language became my professional tool: I started to work as an interpreter for Fiat S.A. in Bielsko-Biala and Tychy, Poland. Italian fashion and design influenced my style and heightened the taste for good quality in everything, that have been with me since. My daughters learnt Italian, and we were spending holiday together in Salento every single year.
With that knowledge I came to London in the early 2000s where I began to brush up on English language. A worthwhile experience. Studying hard gave me MA degree in Arts and a new job as an English Lecturer allowing me also to expand interpreting activity by one language.
In London- an exceptional, multicultural metropolis – the penny dropped. I finally wore that “red dress” and went out to the world spreading my ideas. I created “Universe Model Joy” to upend a concept of beauty consisting of moving beyond traditional- often narrow aesthetic standards- embracing imperfections and diversity of every kind. My catwalks showed people like you and me enjoying their beauty and qualities. Even English teachers were part of the fashion show organized by me (see photo of my colleague Segs).
I have the impression that at some point of my life I captured the balloon from Banksy’s “Girl with balloon” and, instead of bin it, I moved forward to guide my Universum. Just like in the painting “Odkrycie” (Discovery) by AgaSova Art – “Universe Model Joy” logo inspiration.
That feeling drove me to the next step: a storytelling writing. A screenplay “Ode to life” in three languages (Polish, Italian & English) talks about Grazyna- a woman from North who met South one day. Sooner or later, I truly believe you will be watching that story on the big screen 😊
And here we are! Life is an unpredictable journey; so, Grazyna with her ballon turned up in Salento again. She came seeking the warmth, the olive groves with their unpredictable colours and the whisper of the sea breeze.
“The olive trees are very characteristic, and I’m struggling to capture that. It’s silver, sometimes more blue, sometimes greenish, bronzed, whitening on ground that is yellow, pink, purplish or orangeish to dull red.” – Written by Van Gogh to Theo, 28 Semptember 1859.
She rediscovered pajaras (Salento’s trulli, stunning vegetation of this land and fell in love with the Sea again.
Salento Joy is a space where I share joy of things I consider worthwhile: stories, recipes, landscapes & places to settle down and beauty – all that woven into the soul of Salento. It’s like a love letter to Southern Puglia and to the transformation that happens when you let a new land reshape your soul.
