Juliana Gueiros: Make Cooking Possible

Juliana Gueiros, a 2013 Le Cordon Bleu Paris Grand Diplôme® graduate, has built a career that has taken her well beyond the traditional restaurant path. After working around the globe and studying business, her career took a new direction in 2020, when she began sharing her recipes on Instagram.

Now based in Rio de Janeiro, she has become a widely followed voice in everyday cuisine in Brazil. With 229,000 followers on Instagram, she has developed Roti na Cozinha into a platform where technique, teaching and accessible recipes come together. Her aim is simple: to give everyone the desire – and above all the confidence – to cook.

In 2024, she published her first book, Na cozinha, which includes over 150 recipes and practical tips. A second book is now in the works. More than a decade after graduating from Le Cordon Bleu Paris, Juliana has found her own way of working as a chef: sharing her knowledge and bringing professional techniques into everyday kitchens.

You began studying the Grand Diplôme® at Le Cordon Bleu Paris when you were just 18 years old. What did you gain from the programme at the time and how did it lay the foundations for everything you went on to achieve?

I always loved cooking but didn’t really know any “formal techniques”. As well as learning incredible, classic recipes, the Grand Diplôme® gave me solid foundations in cuisine, an extremely valuable skill that I still use every day, whatever recipes or types of cuisine I am working on.

After culinary training, you returned to Brazil to study business. Looking back, how did that second path complement your culinary training, and in what ways do you continue to benefit from this dual perspective today?

My business degree helped me look at another side of the trade – cooking as a business. It helped me to think strategically about cost, pricing, processes, production, supply, and demand.

When I started working on a food-delivery service, it helped me think of efficiency and pricing, but also how to position my brand and reach customers through marketing etc.

Now, working with Instagram, it helps me with many different aspects. How I talk to clients, understand what to offer to brands, and how, as well as all the financial aspects.

In 2020, during the pandemic, a new way for you to share food began to emerge. How did this project come to life, and what made you want to share cuisine in this way?

When the pandemic began, I had to pause the food-delivery service. I found myself with plenty of time on my hands and was looking for a purpose during that time.

With so many people at home, lots of my friends that didn’t cook started reaching out, asking for recipes. Naturally, I began sharing. I started posting recipes on Instagram stories and haven’t stopped since.

I posted every day for almost a year and gained many new followers. Plenty of people found solace in the kitchen, and it was a great pleasure to share my recipes with the ‘world’. In five months, I went from 3k to 50k followers. It was unbelievable.

Today, through Roti na Cozinha, you have built a very personal universe, bringing together recipes, classes, writing and content creation. How would you define this project as it exists today?

My purpose with Roti na Cozinha is to make everyday cooking accessible and achievable for anyone. My goal is to simplify cooking and teach recipes that people can use daily.

I truly believe cooking is a gift we give ourselves. At the end of a long day, to have a delicious, nutritious meal is a privilege.

Your cooking feels simple and close to everyday life, but it is built on very solid technical foundations. What from Le Cordon Bleu Paris can still be found in the way you cook, structure a recipe and share your knowledge?

Le Cordon Bleu Paris was essential in building the foundations of my cooking. If we understand the techniques and the science behind it, we can apply that knowledge even to the simplest recipe.

A simple example: knowing that preheating the pan and adding fat before adding chicken will ensure it is golden, delicious and full of flavour.

Many recipes don’t teach the foundations, and I think that can cause confusion for those who aren’t used to cooking. So, I always try to explain the basics as well.

You have taken a rather unique approach to your profession, far from the more traditional path of a restaurant chef. What do you enjoy most about this development, and what does this way of sharing your cooking allow you to express that you might not have been able to elsewhere?

I love the people side of what I do. I love interacting with followers, seeing them recreate my recipes, but more than that, share incredible moments with their families at the dining table.

I believe cooking to be empowering and to be able to see and hear so many amazing stories about people that found joy and comfort in their kitchens is indescribable.

Through your books, your recipes and your very contemporary way of sharing food, you now reach a wide audience. When you think about the future of cuisine, what would you most like to keep passing on?

I started cooking because of my mum. Seeing her in the kitchen every day and wanting to be close to her made me love that environment more than anything.

I would love to pass on the feeling of doing what you love, for yourself and for the people you love. Doing something that fulfils me brings me great joy, and I hope other people can find that in the kitchen too.