a day ago
'I moved from Brazil to Leamington Spa and asked - is everything closed?'
They say moving house is the most stressful thing you can do in life. But imagine if you weren't just moving house, but moving continents. Having to learn a new culture, a new way of life. Now imagine you are balancing that with a new relationship, starting a family and having to begin a career all over again on the bottom wrung.
This is what happened to Bianca Rodrigues-Perry - a Brazilian native, who met and eventually fell in love while on holiday in Spain with David from Leamington Spa.
Swapping the beaches and the hustle and bustle of Rio De Janeiro 16 years ago left Bianca, or Bia as she is known, reeling. Combined with a traumatic pregnancy and having to start a successful marketing career all over again, Bia in the leafy avenues of Leamington Spa, felt like she'd left an important part of herself back home in the busy streets of Rio.
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But trying to remain positive, she did start to rediscover herself in her new town, thanks to the love and support of her family, husband David and their two children, as well as a passion for the food she grew up eating at home.
'I remember walking through Leamington Spa for the first time and asking if everything was closed,' she laughs. 'It was so quiet compared to Rio!'
In Brazil, Bia had run a marketing and production company organising events and mixing with international artists and celebrities. Her life was busy, creative, and full of energy.
'I went from being a businesswoman in Brazil to feeling completely lost here. I had postnatal depression, and at one point, I didn't want to live anymore,' she says. 'I didn't recognise myself.'
It was a dark period that Bia says she got through with support, faith, and a belief that her story wasn't finished yet.
Food, always central in her life, became a lifeline. She'd been cooking since she was 12, growing up in a family with Brazilian, Italian and Portuguese roots where food was 'how we showed love.' Even when she wasn't working in the food industry, cooking was always part of her identity.
"I've always loved telling stories through food,' she says. 'It's in my blood. If you visit my mother's house and you're skinny, you're not allowed to leave again until she's fattened you up!"
That love found a new creative outlet in Warwickshire, when she began working on Bia's Kitchen Show, a video series supporting local food businesses. The project – part podcast, part documentary, part storytelling platform, and later a book, is her way of giving back to the community she now calls home.
It's not Bia's first time in front of a camera though. In 2021, she appeared on Couples Come Dine With Me alongside hubby David, a decision made on a whim after a friend encouraged her to apply. She went on to wow her fellow participants with her charm, hosting skills and extensive and unique culinary panache, winning the show along the way.
'I didn't care about winning, it was just great experience and good for exposure. And I think the producers liked me because I was a bit bonkers and didn't speak perfect English – great for TV!'
But her latest venture is different. It's less about the spotlight, and more about amplifying others. She produces, interviews, and promotes – combining her experience in events, marketing, and food.
Now, she's taking the project back to her native Brazil to film a new series of episodes across different restaurants, aiming to showcase the diversity of Brazilian cuisine.
'I want to show people that Brazil isn't just barbecue and carnival. There's incredible food influenced by so many cultures – indigenous, Portuguese, African, Japanese, Italian – and every region has its own identity.'
Bia's journey hasn't been easy, but it's one she's proud of. From entrepreneur to mother, from Rio to rural Warwickshire, she's built a new life, and hopes her story might help others do the same.
"It's about connection. About using what I have to give back to the place that welcomed me. Moving here and becoming a mum changed everything. But so did food, therapy, and my relationship with God. I've fought hard to get where I am now and I wouldn't change that."
Find out more about Bia, her shows and even her recipes, on her website.
