Meet the Vovó behind the jar
Every business has a founder. Ours also happens to be our grandmother — and the reason we call this kitchen homemade.
The grandmother who never measured anything
Laura was born in 1944 in Moreno, a small town in Pernambuco, Brazil, and learned to cook the way most people there do: not from a cookbook, but from standing beside someone who already knew — tasting, adjusting, and doing it again until it was right. Garlic went in "until it smelled like garlic." Salt went in "until it tasted like home." There was never a recipe card, just a kitchen that everyone in the family ended up in sooner or later.
More than 25 years ago, Laura moved from Brazil to the United States. She kept making her seasoning the same way — not because it was some closely guarded secret, but because busy families don't have time to chop garlic and herbs fresh every night. Mixed in her own kitchen, shared with neighbors, packed into containers for family who moved away and missed the taste of home — for years, "Can you make me a batch?" was just something people asked Vovó. Laurinha's Kitchen is that same question, answered for anyone who asks it.
From one kitchen to Laurinha's Kitchen
Laura is born
Laura is born in Moreno, Pernambuco, Brazil. (Fun fact: this is what our logo's "Est. 1944" badge actually refers to — it's her birth year, not when we started selling seasoning!)
Learning at the stove
Laura grows up in that Pernambuco kitchen, absorbing the recipe the way it's always been taught in her family — by feel, by smell, and by doing it again until it's right.
A shortcut for a growing family
Once Laura started having children of her own, she needed dinner to come together fast on busy weeknights — but still be real, healthy food, not something from a box. Mixing her own seasoning ahead of time was the answer, and it's been part of her kitchen ever since.
A move to the United States
Laura relocates to the U.S. and keeps cooking the same way, for her own table and for anyone lucky enough to be invited to it. Her seasoning becomes the thing people ask her to bring — to dinners, to holidays, to send home with them in a container "just for the week."
Laurinha's Kitchen is born
What started as favors for family and neighbors becomes a real kitchen table business — Laura's recipe, made fresh in small batches, so more busy families can skip the chopping and get straight to cooking.
"Cooking was never a chore in our house — it was how you showed someone you loved them. I still make everything the same way I learned: with my hands, with fresh garlic, and with no rush. Laurinha's Kitchen just means more people get to sit at the table." — Laura, Founder
Still a family kitchen
Laura is a widow with two daughters and four grandchildren — and Laurinha's Kitchen is still run the way it started: as a family project. She mixes and tastes every batch herself, and the rest of the family helps with everything else, from packing orders to answering the phone. When you order a jar, it's still coming from an actual family kitchen, not a factory line.