“I woke up one morning and half my face was paralysed.” Ida talks about her most unexpected experience since she moved here. “A simple cold had caught the facial nerve and it took me almost two years to recover, apparently it still looks like I’m flirting with people sometimes. It was a tough journey that taught me loads about myself and my surroundings.”
Ida Strandlund, born in Sundsvall, Sweden is one of the bravest women who decided in the middle of post pandemic to start her own company in Mallorca - a private chef business called Cure/ate. She opened a couple of weeks ago and the bookings are rolling in already. Ida have previously worked as a private chef both on land and on yachts but is now based in lovely and lively Soller and this is where she has set up her business.
“I love the area and it is a great place to use as a base on the island.” She does luxurious picnics and cooks at retreats. Her style is modern Mediterranean/middle eastern cuisine (fresh, big flavours, lots of seafood and elaborate salads and sides), but she definitely flirts with the Scandinavian cuisine as well. The name Cure/ate is a bit of a word game hinting towards something curated; like an exhibition, where the whole experience is important, but also of course cure deriving from the meaning of to care for, to heal (because what we put in our mouths very much affects our health and in the long run the whole planet).
“Food concepts represent the ability to create a bespoke experience. I try to use as much seasonal, local, and organic produce as possible. I have more plans for cure/ate both in the near and distant future but for the moment it’s the private chefing that is the main focus.”
She has been on the island for around four years now. But the way to Mallorca was not straight.
“Mallorca is my perfect compromise. Before arriving here, I travelled, lived, and worked all over the world. Australia was my last longest stop before Mallorca and I ended up living there for almost a decade. It took me some time to realise that Australia is very far away from the rest of the world. And when I did, it got me thinking about what I was doing there that I couldn’t do somewhere else, somewhere a bit closer to my loved ones in Sweden without living there. Once you have spoiled yourself with living in the tropics it’s hard to go back to minus degrees and darkness. When I moved down under, I was into surfing but during my last few years I became completely dedicated to freediving.
“My personal best is 35m and my longest breath hold is 4.25min but I’m not really much about the numbers these days. For me, freediving is about a connection to nature and the ability to literally dive into a part of our world that at the same time feels like it’s another planet.
Freediving is an extreme sport in the sense that you explore your limits but it’s not an action sport. On the contrary, you need to put yourself in a calm, close to meditative state (and stay there even when it gets uncomfortable) to enjoy and to excel in the sport. Freediving is very enjoyable but yes, it can also be very dangerous for various reasons. I would always recommend anyone interested to do a course. There are quite a few skilled instructors on the island and there’s both shorter and longer courses. A course would not only educate you in safety but also naturally teach you the techniques you need to improve your underwater skills. Most students can dive to at least 10m after just a few days, regardless of previous experience.”
She is a woman with many talents, apart from being one of the few freediving instructors on the island and a great chef, she writes her own stories that she illustrates and paint them.