Hi! Welcome to The Lab at Home.

I am Julia, a scientist by day and a creative mess in the kitchen after work. This is the background story on how I got inspired to create The Lab at Home.

I was born in Vojvodina, the northernmost region of Serbia, as the 2nd child to a mostly Hungarian mother and a mainly Croatian father. The surroundings I grew up in are characterized by a blend of diverse heritages, as it is seen in modern Balkan culture (that has been influenced by Turkish occupation), or the unparalleled art deco architecture of my hometown (which dominated in the times of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy). These cultural legacies are deeply rooted in many dishes prepared at home.

During my undergraduate years I lived in Hungary (2010-2014), and a successful MSc application has landed me in the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen in 2010, where I have been a resident ever since. 

My personality and value sets are shaped by a multi-cultural and open-minded upbringing. Through debates on cultural diversity at both the office and at home I realized that the most common topics we cover are the similarities and differences between the local and my home cuisines. 

During my PhD (2016-2020), I spent most of my time in the lab, and I needed a creative outlet. For me this was baking. I would FaceTime my mom to ask for well-proven recipes of my childhood, and overloaded my Pinterest board with dishes I planned to make, which were needless to say organised by specific categories (hello PhD). The kitchen was my "lab at home" where I could experiment with safe substances, and where I would always succeed even when my experiments failed in the actual lab.