Welcome to Our Plant-Based World. Here we post the things we cook using ingredients from all around the World, hand-picked from different travel adventures we've had during the past years.
Cooking, Traveling & Photography Lovers
Food Styling & User Experience Fans
Recipe Developers
Gus from Panama and Joaco from Argentina. We met in Buenos Aires back in 2013 and moved to Mexico immediately after getting married three years later.
We are digital nomads, and our year revolves between Italy, Spain, Panama, Mexico, Argentina, and the US, since those are the countries where our families are located. Then we match them with our business trips to build the best travel guides!
All these fabulous gastronomic destinations awakened our long-standing dream of creating a blog where we could bring together our shared passions for plant-based nutrition, traveling, wine pairing, caring for the environment, and having a healthy lifestyle.
Other shared passions are running, yoga, and gardening.
Our Story
We are a Latin couple, Gus from Panama and Joaco from Argentina. In 2013, we met in South America, moved to Mexico immediately after, and since then, we have been revolving between Europe and Mexico.
We have been married and plant-based for the past five years and counting. So now that I am saying it, yes, it happened simultaneously!
Food has always had a special place in our life, as the essential affair constitutes for most Latin American, Spanish and Italian families, which are our backgrounds.
We work on our blogs, Our Plant-Based World and Nómadas Gourmet (Spanish), and we couldn't be happier because we are passionate about what we do. This profession has allowed us to achieve the dream of working from wherever we want, helping while we cook, incorporating flavors, techniques and flavors from other cultures while helping other people to have a healthier life and be more aware of our planet.
Gustavo
My friends call me Gus or Tavo, and I am from Panama.
Until December 2019, I worked in corporate roles focused on the User Experience for almost two decades. Working from home and business traveling allowed me to experience various world cuisines and emulate my latest discoveries at home.
I decided to take a break from Corporate Life while moving to Europe and dedicate myself 100% to studying, cooking, writing, traveling, and blogging.
I love having nutritious, flavor-packed, and colorful breakfasts, meditating, running, and hitting our food lab on my infinite quest for mouthwatering dishes, celebrating new creations with a glass of wine!
Trying, failing, accomplishing, shooting, and sharing the results with our friends and readers, is what I am genuinely passionate about.
To provide the best information available, in May 2021, I completed the Plant-Based Nutrition Certification that was created by Cornell University's online platform eCornell and the Center for Nutrition Studies so that I could better understand the importance of nutrition in our lives and share it with you all.
Joaquin
I am Joaco, Argentinean/Italian. I am a Photographer, Content Creator, and I worked as Creative Director at my Digital Marketing boutique agency.
Like Gus, I have moved a lot, so traveling, writing, documenting, and shooting new places and dishes is where I found my place on Eart.
I am also very passionate about gardening and strolling cities on a bike.
In my early 20s, I worked in Los Angeles and New York as an Au Pair to study English and travel as much as possible, which allowed me to cook a lot and awakened my love for food. However, with Gus, I took the back seat, grabbed the camera, and enjoyed the results afterward, a great deal!
The Blog
The Story Behind Our Plant-Based World.
Gus: I have been cooking and intrigued by traveling and getting to know other cultures since I was a child. After watching a couple of documentaries about how we eat affects our planet, I decided to do my part to change that.
In that quest, I started to learn more about a plant-based diet's health benefits while raising my awareness about animal suffering resulting from our food choices.
Our Philosophy
We call ourselves plant-based eaters since taking eggs or cheese out of the food while in social gatherings is almost impossible. When we first launched the blog, we occasionally used them. Now we don't, so you can expect all-new recipes to be vegan.
We like to teach by love and example and not by judging or pointing fingers. That was how we embraced this lifestyle. We now firmly believe that if all of us could reduce our animal product intake, we would already be helping tremendously. The health benefits come as a result.
Every person I know who followed this path experienced the health benefits and continued changing the number of animal products they put on their plate.
I have been in various cooking programs and, along with the intense traveling, have stacked our kitchen with unique spices, which led me to embark on a never-ending experimenting journey with all kinds of World flavors, cooking legacies, and techniques.
The name
Our Plant-Based World signifies our effort to come up with healthy plant-based recipes. Since all the recipes we share have been influenced by a range of cultures around the World, we thought the name was appropriate.
How are the Blog duties shared?
Gus: I'm the health-minded of the two of us since, as a teenager, I struggled with weight management. I come from both a family of physicians and individuals who suffered from either obesity or diabetes.
So, I am a cook and always try to develop tasty, healthy recipes using whole foods and nutritious ingredients.
Joaco: I am the photographer and designer. I also like cooking, but since I met Gustavo, I let him take the lead on that end and took charge of the camera while ensuring the technical aspects of the blog ran smoothly.
We share writing, food styling, blogging, social media, and technical aspects of blogging.
Photography & Styling
Joaco: I take the photos; I have always used a Canon 60D.
I use the 50 mm f2.8 or 24mm f2.8 macro lens. Although looking forward to experimenting with continuous lighting to extend the shooting hours, we only shoot in natural light.
As backgrounders, we use linen fabrics that my mother sewed for us and some photography backgrounds.
Why we chose the Plant-Based Path
Becoming plant-based eaters
I [Gus] started by taking meat off of my plate, which was difficult as I lived in Argentina for ten years, which is Joaco's hometown, and yes, they are well known for their meat quality.
Then came seafood, also challenging; being a Panamanian, I grew up surrounded by seafood, staples of my country's cuisine, and dairy, honey, and eggs, which took a while as it is still very challenging to get good options wherever we go.
We also use some vintage material from second-hand shops.
Do you never eat what you would call unhealthy food?
Oh yes! We eat all of those things, but not very often, usually during the weekends. We eat healthy options during the week, and of course, a pizza night now and then.
Meat?
We don't eat meat. We eat primarily plant-based food; sometimes, we also eat eggs when they are part of a dessert; the same goes for dairy and pizza. We limit cheese consumption.
Vegan Cheese options have become substantially better. However, when we just crave some savory snack, we go for Hummus and a good piece of homemade bread.
Please e-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions or just want to say hi!
You can also find us on Instagram @ourplantbasedworld