Born in Brazil, Luiz came to the UK for his university education. On completion of his business degree in London, Luiz qualified as a Chartered Accountant and spent over 10 years working in finance and investment banking in the City of London.
During this time Luiz started writing The London Foodie blog (thelondonfoodie.com) as a creative platform, which unexpectedly became the catalyst for him to quit the City in pursuit of a career in food. He moved to Tokyo for Japanese food research and worked at Japanese izakaya restaurants, before returning to the UK and retraining at Le Cordon Bleu Cookery School in London.
Luiz graduated from Le Cordon Bleu Grande Diplomê in French Cuisine and Patisserie, before launching his Japanese and Nikkei supper club in London in 2012, which he still runs regularly. This led Luiz to publish his first book ‘Nikkei Cuisine: Japanese Food the South American Way’ by Jacqui Small.
Luiz is today the UK’s leading authority on Nikkei – the cooking of the Japanese diaspora. ‘Nikkei Cuisine’ has been translated into numerous languages and published in all English speaking countries, France, Italy, Spain, Mexico, Brazil and Japan. Luiz is currently working on his 2nd cookbook ‘The Japanese Larder’ which is due to be published in Autumn 2018.
Luiz has had his work featured in numerous national and international publications including BBC Good Food, The Guardian, The Telegraph, Time Out London, Olive Magazine, Stylist Magazine, London Evening Standard, Foodism, Shortlist, Healthy Magazine, Food & Beverage.com and Waitrose Weekend.
Just as passionate about wine, Luiz also holds an Advanced Certificate from the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET), and writes about wine and spirits, and matching them with food.