Marisol Lema

Dania lights up the room when she smiles and enters the kitchen with the fresh goods she bought that same afternoon.

She’s usually also carrying edible flowers, seeds, and vegetables she harvested herself that morning while walking with her dogs on the beach.

A few minutes later, the aroma floods the room and, soon enough, you find yourself immersed in a trip around Costa Rican gastronomy and culture.

You better be ready with your belts (un) fastened: it is an adventure that will engage all of your senses.

Is it the same aroma that little and curious Dania smelled when she opened and closed the pots at her aunts’ kitchen, where she spent a lot of her time growing up?

Probably: she says her aunts are a great influence in her cooking. Now, decades later, they follow her career as a chef with love and devotion.

Dania always liked to eat well.

She describes herself as an “antojada”, a craver. When she was a kid, she didn’t like the cookies from the store, so she demanded her mom to make them for her.

As soon as she learned how to read, her mom gave her a recipe book, “Recetas prácticas de Olga de Trejos”, for Dania to take care of her own cravings.

Not only has she never stopped cooking, but she still sometimes prepares recipes from that book.

Although she was clearly destined to work in a kitchen, Dania went to college for Industrial Design in San José de Costa Rica after studying in a bilingual school since the age of six.

She worked as an interpreter for nine years, but she never abandoned her love of cooking: she was always in charge of the family’s Christmas dinner.

One day, she decided she needed a break from life. (We’ve all been there, haven’t we?). So she packed her bags and went to visit a friend living on the British Virgin Islands.

There, she had her first opportunity to work as a chef with a cranky French boss that demonstrated to her two things: that she could be a cook, and that she had to study to be a chef so that she never had to depend on anybody else to do what she loves.

And she did! Our Dania traveled back to Costa Rica, graduated with honors, and, after working at a vegan restaurant and a coffee shop, left San José to escape from the city and headed to Potrero.

Little did she know what the Pacific Ocean was preparing for her! She became the head chef at The Spot, in Brasilito, where she worked for a year.

That was the beginning of her professional career. After seven years working at different restaurants, she realized she was suffering due to a pretty unhealthy lifestyle: long sedentary hours, and spending most of her time inside (while living in paradise!).

So she gave her life a new twist: she took the chance and started working as a private chef on her own.

Since then, Dania has worked in the most luxurious homes and resorts, collecting excellent reviews.

And she delights our guests at Ralia Retreats, of course.

Her specialty is Costa Rican fusion cuisine, as a reflection of her pride for her country and her own family history: she has roots in the Huetar aboriginal community and in Italy.

So, she cooks Costa Rican products using international techniques.

The moment Dania enjoys the most is when, after serving her dishes, she hears nothing but silence and sees smiles on the diners’ faces. “That means they are present, enjoying the food”.

She says her purpose in life is to “feed people, heal them through colorful and nutritive food, with vitamins and minerals, teach them to eat vegetables in different and enjoyable ways”.

“I want to feed them physically, spiritually, and tell them about my life in Costa Rica through food”, she sums up, and smiles again, with an unforgettable sparkle in her eyes.