Natalia Mayerhoffer

The food I grew up with

I was born in Krasnoyarsk, Siberia. My grandfather, Victor Moskalenko, took me into the taiga and taught me to pay attention: which mushrooms were ready, when berries were worth gathering, and when it was wiser to leave something alone. My grandmother Valentina brought the dacha harvest into the kitchen. She taught me to cook, preserve vegetables and fruit, and turn the work of summer into food that would see us through winter. My mother Elena’s cooking carried us through the cold months. Those memories are where my relationship with food began.

Food was never separate from the people, seasons and work around it. A jar put away for winter, a basket brought back from the forest or a meal made from what was growing nearby all carried their own kind of knowledge. I still think about those lessons when we cook and write about food today.

Sport, curiosity and learning about health

I trained with a regional rhythmic gymnastics team and travelled to competitions around Russia. Sport made me curious about food, energy and the body from an early age. My grandmother’s knowledge of seasonal produce and preservation gave that curiosity a practical foundation, while my interest in biology and chemistry deepened it as I grew older.

My dental education added another layer. Over the years, I have continued to read about nutrition and metabolic health, and my own effort to become fitter has made me more interested in how everyday habits affect how we feel. I want to be clear that this is a personal, self-directed interest: I do not hold a formal qualification in nutrition and I do not present myself as a nutritionist or dietitian.

Dentistry and teaching

I completed a specialist degree in dentistry in Russia and worked in dental practice for six months before moving to Thailand. Later, in the United Kingdom, I returned to dentistry and worked in the field for five years. Teaching has been part of my working life too. In the UK, I taught dental professionals; since relocating to Asia, I have focused on teaching English to children and biomedical and dental English to adults.

Moving between clinical work, teaching and family life has taught me to explain things clearly, keep learning and understand that people bring different experiences to the same subject. Those habits are useful well beyond a classroom or clinic.

The journeys that made me feel at home in the world

I have loved travelling for as long as I can remember. Even a trip to our summerhouse or a walk in a local forest felt like an expedition. Rhythmic gymnastics took me around Russia; after university, I decided in a single day that I wanted to go and explore Asia. Before I met Oliver, I travelled with friends and on my own. Thailand opened a new chapter, and I went on to explore Cambodia, Laos, Malaysia and the Philippines.

Some of my most memorable journeys came through local people who welcomed me into places I would never have found alone. We sometimes shared meals before we had a common language. I learned to watch, listen and accept that I would not understand everything straight away. That is often when a journey becomes most memorable.

One invitation in the Philippines began with what I thought would be a carnival. Instead, a local friend took me to a small mountain village to celebrate Easter with their family. Many people there had rarely met a European visitor. The day brought one surprise after another; at one point, the village chief unexpectedly nominated me to take part in a traditional rooster fight. I had no idea that was where the invitation was leading. It remains one of the most unexpected experiences of my travels, and a reminder that the world is much bigger than the version of it we carry in our heads.

Those journeys taught me to adapt, listen and stay open when a place, a meal or a custom is unfamiliar. I want Victor to grow up with that same curiosity: to meet different cultures, foods, customs and religions with respect rather than fear, and to understand that travel is as much about listening as it is about seeing.

My grandmother Valentina used to say: “If you want to see somebody’s true personality, take them on a trip.”

Building a family and a shared archive

I met Oliver on Koh Chang in 2014. We married in Krasnoyarsk in 2015, and our son Victor was born at Nathon Hospital on Koh Samui in November 2016. We co-founded Mangoes & Palm Trees in 2018. What began as a publishing project has grown into a family archive of recipes, food traditions, ingredient knowledge and travel stories.

Our travels together have taken us to more than 50 countries. In 2026, our journey through Southeast Asia has brought us from Thailand back to Vietnam. We are currently in Ho Chi Minh City, with more places still ahead of us. The details change as we move; the curiosity that brought me onto the road in the first place has never really left.

At Mangoes & Palm Trees, my contribution reaches well beyond a final review. I help develop and cook recipes, research food traditions and ingredient substitutions, write and edit, photograph, plan our journeys and share what we experience first-hand. Oliver leads much of the writing, but the publication is family work. Individual stories should make clear who actually wrote, tested, photographed or reviewed them.