Rita Santos opened a couple of months ago her own grocery shop, it is called Comida Independente.
R.S.: This shop is about the small producers who make extraordinary products that represent the best of Portuguese gastronomy. When the grower is involved, that’s when the best of the food is done. So we travelled the country to look for these producers and we got them together in the same place.
R.S.: It’s a funny story because I always worked for big corporations before this project. I decided that it was time for a change, it’s kind of a middle-life crisis cliché. I think at some point in time I felt the need of having a project at a human scale, something that will go beyond, a global impact in the end. I guess coming from other areas I also can give another perspective. We have a contemporary language that allows us to speak with other audiences, other people who will become interested, saying “oh it’s nice, what’s going on here?” and they talk to me. And you know, this connection of things that were not previously connected brings a bit of richness to the project I think.
Also, I guess there wasn’t such place. Being passionate about food and about wine, I thought it was worth doing the effort of bringing them all together. We opened about 6 months ago. It’s still growing. But there are already 150 producers here, it’s quite complete in that sense.
We’re still experimenting but we want to have like a one-stop shop, a place where you can have everything, not just a place where you can go and purchase some small gifts. Of course food is a great gift you can bring to someone but we wanted to be a shop that is alive with real products, real kitchen, real people who cook at home, so it’s about all of that.
R.S.: We have fresh and organic products from a farmer with whom we partner. It comes from a very close-by farm, outside of Lisbon. Then we have wine, which is big for us. All natural wines, all from small producers. Natural in the sense of low intervention wines, no preserves, no high degree of sulfites, temperature controls, all those kinds of things that usually are associated to big productions. Only small productions can do it like that, it’s a great expression of terroir. If you think of food as an expression of a country, of a land or of a region, you can think of many foods but I think wines imbend the whole philosophy of a terroir expression.
Then we have bread, sourdough, we have chocolate which is bean-to-bar, we have teas. I think practically all food categories, even meat and cod fish. Cod fish is king on the Portuguese gastronomy. We also have olive oils. We are always working on the meat, but it is a challenge working with small farmers on meat.
We also have a few complements, frozen ones, some fresheners. The charcuteries and the cheeses which are quite big for us also, as the expression of the land. In Portugal we have 100 of different charcuteries and also cheeses of course. It’s a very rich country in terms of the details for each producer and the way it’s done. Every small village almost has its own recipe.
We also felt the need not to be narrow-minded just having Portuguese products. We have 80% of some products like wine or cheese that are Portuguese, 20% is foreign. But for that we also look for small productions. Like, cheese fine tuners who also work with small producers in Great-Britain or in The Netherlands like La Meuse. These places also bring us the kind of products we’re looking for, in terms of the origins and the way it is done.
R.S. Well, I think, food is a big debate. We have our own propositions, we are out of the mass market and I think there’s a place for that, for people who are really passionate about food and they want to find special things. We hope that we provide this service to them. Curating, finding these people, knowing their stories, sharing this with people, we invite producers to come often to share about the products with people. We make some dishes around the products, we taste the wines, we talk about it. So it’s quite convivial. It’s like a community of people and there has been so many cooks, sommeliers, people travelling from other countries and coming here to get to know us and the shop.
If it makes sense, yes I think so, some people visit a destination precisely to learn and to talk about what Portuguese wine is, what Portuguese food is, what is it about. I’m suspicious, of course I am because I am the person who did it but I think it makes a lot of sense. Food is also part of our identity, our culture, and if we don’t curate it and take good take care of it it will just dissolve in many others products that have their merit but it won’t be taking care of the heritage as well.
R.S.: Oh wow! First of all the wine, absolutely. We have beautiful wines and we still have wine makers who do it on a very authentic way. Then, olive oils, not very well popular compared to Italy, or even Spain and Greece. So I think our olive oils also deserve this kind of light. And also, I would say the sweets, there’s a lot of history around it.
R.S.: Our signature is “great products by small producers”. By knowing the producers and knowing how things are done, it helps us enjoying the food even more and it’s important for the taste and naturality. And when people understand that more natural products are tasting better than I think we do our job.
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Belgium.
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When you order the merchandise on the site, your contract is made with
Amélie Vincent -The Foodalist
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Please note that we only accept payments from accounts within the European Union (EU). You are responsible for any costs associated with money transactions.
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Subject to the further terms set out below (including some important exceptions), when you purchase an item from www.thefoodalsit.com have a statutory right of revocation: The first thing you should know is that if you decide to return merchandise, you can use the return shipping label enclosed with your order, or it can also be printed out from your customer account page. If you do not have access to a printer, you encounter problems downloading the return shipping label or you require a new return shipping label, you can contact Customer Care to request one (contact details below). Please help us to avoid unnecessary costs by always using the return shipping label when returning merchandise.
Information regarding the statutory right to cancel:
You have the right to cancel your contract with us within 14 days without giving any reasons. The cancellation period will expire 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires possession of the last item in your order.
To exercise the statutory right to cancel you must inform us by contacting us in one of the following ways:
The Foodalist
Amélie Vincent
88 rue Franz Merjay
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32477662418
By using the attached cancellation form, (you may use this form but you are not obliged to do so).
To meet the cancellation deadline, you must send your communication concerning your exercise of the right to cancel before the cancellation period has expired.
What happens after you have told us you wish to cancel
If you cancel the contract under the statutory right to cancel, we shall reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (with the exception of supplementary costs resulting from your choice of a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us), without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel. We will carry out such reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction (Paypal).
We may withhold reimbursement until we have received the goods back or you have supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest. You must return the items you no longer want to us without undue delay, and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you told us you were cancelling the contract. We will bear the costs of returning the goods provided you use the return shipping label provided by us for shipment from the country in which delivery was made to you, otherwise you will be required to pay the return shipping costs. You are only obliged to cover any depreciation in the value of returned items if the depreciation is attributable to your improper handling of the returned items when examining their condition, properties and function.
Cancellation form
(If you wish to cancel the contract, please complete this form and return it to us)
Attn: The Foodalist
Amélie Vincent
88 rue Franz Merjay
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32477662418
I/we (*) hereby give notice that I/we (*) withdraw from my/our (*) contract of sale of the following goods (*):
— ordered on (*)/received on (*)
— name of customer(s)
— address of customer(s)
— signature of consumer (s) (only if this form is notified on paper),
— date
(*) Delete as appropriate
The right of cancellation expires prematurely for contracts subject to sealed goods which have been unsealed after delivery and which are not suitable for return due to hygienic reasons.
End of notice
Subject to the further terms set out below (including some important exceptions), when you purchase on www.thefoodalist.com you have a statutory right of revocation: The first thing you should know is that if you decide to return merchandise, you can use the return shipping label enclosed with your order. If you require a new return shipping label, you can contact Customer Care to request one (contact details below). Please help us to avoid unnecessary costs by always using the return shipping label when returning merchandise.
Information regarding the right of revocation:
You have the right to cancel your contract with us within 14 days without giving any reasons. The cancellation period will expire 14 days from the day on which you acquire, or a third party other than the carrier and indicated by you acquires possession of the last item in your order. To exercise the statutory right to cancel you must inform us by contacting us in one of the following ways:
The Foodalist
Amélie Vincent
88 rue Franz Merjay
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32477662418
Consequences of revocation
If you cancel the contract contract under the statutory right to cancel, we shall reimburse to you all payments we received from you, including delivery costs (with the exception of supplementary costs resulting from your choice of a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us), without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which we are informed about your decision to cancel. We will carry out such reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise. The refund will be sent to your Paypal. If you used a gift voucher for your purchase, we will credit the relevant amount to your gift voucher account. We may withhold reimbursement until we have/has received the goods back, or you have supplied evidence of having sent back the goods, whichever is the earliest. You must return the items you no longer want to us without undue delay, and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which you told us you were cancelling the contract.
Cancellation form
(If you wish to cancel the contract, please complete this form and return it to us)
Attn:
The Foodalist
Amélie Vincent
88 rue Franz Merjay
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32477662418
I/we (*) hereby give notice that I/we (*) withdraw from my/our (*) contract of sale of the following goods (*)/:
— ordered on (*)/received on (*)
— name of customer(s)
— signature of consumer (s) (only if this form is notified on paper),
— date
— address of customer(s)
— date (*)
Delete as appropriate
The right of cancellation expires prematurely for contracts subject to sealed goods which have been unsealed after delivery and which are not suitable for return due to hygienic reasons.
End of notice
8.1 Without prejudice to your statutory right to cancel set out above, we offer you the option of returning items ordered from thefoodalist.com website within 100 days of you receiving them. This return option allows you to return items to us, even after the 14-day cancellation period has expired (see "Statutory Right to Cancel above).
8.2 If you are returning merchandise, you can use the return shipping label enclosed with your order, or you can print the label out yourself from your customer account page. Please contact Customer Care if you have any problems downloading the return shipping label or you do not have access to a printer.
8.3 Your returned items will be deemed returned within 100 days if you send it within such time.
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8.5 The voluntary 100 days return right does not exist for contracts subject to sealed goods which have been unsealed after delivery and which are not suitable for return due to hygienic reasons.
8.6 We do not offer exchanges for returned items. If you wish to purchase a new item, please place a new order.
Any refunds are paid automatically to the Paypal account.
If you used a gift voucher for your purchase, we will credit the relevant amount to your gift voucher account.
For questions please contact our customer care team on amelie@thefoodalist.com.
Please contact us if an item you have purchased from thefoodalist.com website develops a fault. Nothing in these terms shall affect your statutory rights.
These terms are governed by Belgian law. Any disputes may be submitted for online resolution to the European Commission Online Dispute Resolution platform, or in front of the Belgian courts.
The Foodalist
Amélie Vincent
88 rue Franz Merjay
1050 Brussels
Belgium
Tel: +32477662418
