OUR TEAM

Marina was born and raised in Lisbon, in one of the oldest neighborhoods: the Castel.

Marina has a passion for hospitality that was unearthed in her father’s restaurant in Lisbon’s infamous Bairro Alto district where she helped out prepping food as a youngster. Her family has strong roots in Angola, having thrived there for 25 years before returning to Lisbon in the 70’s, and these roots have had a creative influence on her family’s authentic cooking style, invoking spicy food and strong flavors ever since! The authentic Portuguese ‘kitchen table’ has always been at the center of her family’s relationship.These days, her family crowds around one or another such table every Sunday to pay homage to traditional seasonal ingredients and share organic fruit and vegetables that have been grown in one of their gardens.

As a fearless 21 year old she decided to move to London to improve her English and experience life. Her plan was for a temporary move, but she ended up staying. She found employment with an independent, award winning, group of cocktail bars and learned her trade as a mixologist and venue manager. She organized and executed parties and events that included pop up rooftop parties and live music lineups that were hugely successful. Her language skills developed in London and she now speaks English like a native!

After 6 eventful years in London, Marina moved to Morzine, in the French Alps, to sample yet another way of life and intensify her love of food, hospitality and culture. France is renowned for its culinary diversity and Marina was fascinated with their cuisine. She worked in a local restaurant under a French chef who helped to nurture Marina’s interest and skill in the kitchen. Her family enjoyed an idyllic life in one of the most beautiful places in France, but Marina often felt ‘saudade’, a strong longing for Portugal….

So, in 2021, after 17 years abroad accumulating a husband, 2 children, 2 languages and a wealth of experience, Marina returned to her homeland to continue the odyssey of her life. She now enjoys living the rural life among her fruit trees and flowers just on the outskirts of Lisbon.

However, hosting Oh My Cod! tours allows her to experience the buzz that only city life can provide! She has extensive local knowledge and understands the cultural influences on Lisbon’s strong culinary heritage which she proudly shares whenever she can.

Born in Brazil with Portuguese roots, Thais has been coming to Lisbon every summer since she was 6 years old. Raised between multiple cities in both Brazil and the USA, Thais was sure of only one thing. That was, no matter what city she found herself in, her summers would be spent in amazing Lisbon.

Lisbon has been her longest love affair and 5 years ago she made it official by moving over and totally embracing the Lisboeta life.

Her love for the local food and passion for discovering new restaurants made her understand how powerful sharing a table with someone can be.
For her a table is a sacred place and that the only thing bigger than her love for food is her love for sharing it with others.

So after, she settled roots in Lisbon, she founded a new passion: to be a Food Host at Oh! My Cod Food Tours!

For Thais, local food & people are the best way to experience Portugal, its history, and its life. She is also the host of a Beer Tasting Experience since 2018 and she is the founder of Petisca where she composes the most delicious and beautiful food boards in Lisbon.

Thais’ favorite thing to do in Lisbon is to wake up on a Saturday morning go for a walk around the Graca neighborhood and go to Feira da Ladra, her favorite flea market. After intentionally ‘getting lost’ in Alfama, she chooses a tiny restaurant that sells nice grilled sardines or any fresh local fish. After that, she gets the tram to Belém and checks the modern Berardo Museum.

Out of Lisbon, she loves to explore Sintra. Even though Sintra is home to the most beautiful castles and gardens that she has seen, what she mostly likes about the place is the natural landscapes and the diversity. You can find a beautiful beach, a dense forest, or a hidden waterfall within less than 30 mins from each other by car. For her, this is a bit of heaven on earth.

Apart from being a host at Oh! My Cod Tours, Thais created her own small business, named Pestica, during pandemic times, in 2020, to diminish the distance between people, local producers, and small shops, while coping with the quarantine measures.

She prepares and delivers in Lisbon, beautiful and amazing cheese, ham, and vegan boards all made with local products from small producers.

Thais speaks Portuguese and English. You can follow her on Instagram.

A Brazilian mutt born and raised in cosmopolitan São Paulo, Brazil, to parents of Portuguese, Italian, Swiss and German descent, Adriana can be considered an interesting case of “home is where the heart is.” With a degree in Hotel Administration & Hospitality from the prestigious Hotel School at Cornell University, Adriana opened her own ecotourism agency on the idyllic island of Fernando de Noronha in the Northeast of Brazil when she turned 25-years-old.

Passionate about all things nature, the environment and animals and having lived full time on an island for more than 10 years, she loves to SCUBA dive, swim in the sea and nature walks. But in search for better quality of life combined with a burning curiosity about her Portuguese roots, Adriana moved to Lisbon in 2015, and now can clearly see how her Portuguese lineage is very much part of her modern identity.

The pandemic and a divorce was the nudge she needed to take to the van lifestyle, transitioning to full-time living in her campervan – named Gaia – in May 2020. She now happily pursues a more minimalist and eco-friendly lifestyle with a smaller carbon footprint and a mostly “off-grid” existence.

Being a host for Oh! My Cod allows her to explore her new passions: slow-food and Portuguese history and culture while honoring family-owned businesses and meeting people from all corners of the world. And all of this in the country that embraced her after a little over a century of both her maternal grandparents having departed for a new life in Brazil. Adriana has come full-circle.

Natacha is a Portuguese certified local Chef and skipper, who was born one hour from Lisbon in Sesimbra a small fishing village in front of the sea.

Her life is all about fishing, growing vegetables in her father’s vegetable-garden, cooking, and selecting the best products to share with friends and her guests. She is a fisherwoman and local skipper, but also passionate about Portuguese wines which she explores informally.

Her love and knowledge for wine started already during her childhood when, during harvest time, she headed up to Porto, to her mother’s family house to pick the grapes and produce wine and Aguardente (firewater).

Even if she was not allowed to drink (yet!) all those experiences built the basis for her current pleasure in tasting and exploring Portuguese wines.

She is also a great cook! Besides cooking with fresh fish, she is an expert on all the ‘conventual’ desserts – Abade de Priscos, Farófias, Pastel de Nata, and much more – creating magic with amazing free range eggs from her father’s small farm!

For all these reasons, she became the perfect Oh! My Cod Tours host in diner and sailing experiences!

Natacha speaks English, and Portuguese. You can follow her on Instagram.

Portuguese travel and food writer. Besides being the author of “Lisbon in 100 Bites”, she’s also the creator of Portugal’s only Pastel de Nata baking workshop to take place inside a real working bakery. At Oh! My Cod Zara leads gastronomic experiences in Lisbon. Recently Silvia managed to convince Zara that there’s something truly special about Pico island and, after sharing many stories, she decided to travel there herself and finally join the Oh! My Cod Pico Experience too.

Born 32 years ago in Spain with Portuguese roots, Miguel is an Intercultural Psychologist and co-founder of a Tapas bar in Lisbon. Growing between two of the most traditional regions in Spain (Castile and Galiza), soon developed a hobby -and taste!- for gastronomy.

Graduated in Psychology from the University of Salamanca, he travelled around Europe and North Africa living in such different places like Sweden, Italy, England or Tunisia. Here is where he discovered his call for the Intercultural Relations and one of its most important manifestations: the gastronomy of the different communities.

After returning to the Iberian Peninsula, he settled in sunny Lisbon: a melting pot of cultures! After taking a Master’s to specialize in Psychology of Intercultural Relations, he worked as a clinical and intercultural psychologist in a housing project with different nationalities and, eventually, opened his gastronomic project: “Batata Patata” a relaxed spot located in Penha de França to share food and experiences.

Rodrigo was born and raised in Lisbon in a family of artists, his mom is a curator and restorer of antics – porcelain, paintings, tapestry – and his father was a musician and composer.

From a young age, he developed a taste for music and learned various instruments but really fell in love with drumming which he started studying intensively from the age of 8. Eventually, that dedication paid off when he was invited for an audition at a University in England where he got offered a scholarship and completed a BA honors degree in music.

His time in England awakened in him an interest in learning more about Portuguese gastronomy, which he was missing so much. He started developing his cooking skills and exploring all he could about the history behind the ingredients and condiments used in Portuguese cuisine. Soon he found himself immersed in the amazing interconnectedness between the fascinating period of Portuguese exploration around the world and how that influenced gastronomy in so many parts of the world, but also in Portugal.

Now he is a proud local Food Expert and Cultural Mediator with an endless love for food, culture, Portugal and especially for sharing it with other people.

Born in Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, south of Brazil, the land of barbecue and red wine, Livia is a 30-year-old Personal Chef, who graduated with distinction as the best student in the Gastronomy course.

She has worked in marketing for big international companies, but was in 2015, when studying management at the University of Lisbon, that she discovered her love and desire to share gastronomic experiences – either through cooking, through her knowledge shared on social media and also as host and food expert at Oh! my Cod. Besides, she is a great enthusiast of good music and good wines. Exploring markets, restaurants, recipes, wines and ingredients is part of her daily routine!

Apart from being a Food Expert and Cultural Mediator at Oh! My Cod, Lívia works as a Personal Chef, Manager, Consultant & Creator of Gastronomic Content through her brand @cozinhadalivia, on digital platforms.

Lisbon is now her homeplace, the country where her professional vocation was born, but also where Livia find her Lusitanian origin. But she has also lived in Valencia, Dubai and Doha, where she had the opportunity to experience and learn about these and other cultures.

Traveling and getting to know the local history and food culture, is part of her essence, as Lívia believes that these are “ingredients” to provide and create context and new connections between different people from different locals in the world.