Olya Hercules

Her name was Maria Mestaller Echagüe and she was from Bilbao.

She was a mother of 11 in the 30s in Spain, 1930s.

She was also a chef, but she was also an entrepreneur because she had two restaurants, one in Bilbao

And as well as the children, the cooking and the restaurants, Maria Mestalla de Echegue had a pen name.

The Marquise of Paraveres was her writing name.

And she wrote the first culinary encyclopedia in Spain that all Spanish chefs have.

So very often there is a stereotype, which is not true at all, that there is no female chefs in haute cuisine because it's too demanding, it's too tough.

And actually she is the proof that it's not real, it's not true.

You know, this is a mantra that is not true because...

She was a mother, she was a wife, she was an entrepreneur, she was a writer.

So these ladies are role models.

This is why we took the name of Parabere.

At the beginning,

The Forum is a global platform.

We are 8,000 professional women from 60 different countries and we promote diversity, inclusion and gender equality in hospitality.

We are in a world where there are a lot of hateful ideologies.

And food, since ever, has been a tool for war.

And many revolutions started because people were starving.

So using the food as a weapon of war is not new.

And when in Gaza, the United Nations declared last August that it was a famine, we thought it was extremely important to talk about the connections because food is about politics.