The beauty of culture
At a dinner party in the home of businesswoman Angelica Mesisca Barrientos, luxury comes in the form of sharing cultures and ideas with a beautiful Latin American menu and wine list to match.
It’s getting to the end of the night and the Leabrook home of Angelica Mesisca is filled with laughter and music. The multi-faceted businesswoman is hosting a stunning dinner party, where she’s brought together like-minded women for an evening of hearty feasting and deep conversation.
Two of her guests are standing towards one end of the table, salsa dancing to the South American music that is playing in the background. It’s joyous. Spontaneous. High-spirited.
Down the other end of the table, more guests continue to pick at the leftover dessert … while the aromas of the dishes long eaten earlier in the night – laden with spices and condiments – remain in the air.
The menu, which has included kingfish aguachile and a soupy stew called chupe de camarones, is a tribute to Angelica’s Latin American background, the cuisine’s heady scents reminiscent of those that filled her childhood home when she was young.
Angelica grew up in South Australia with parents who moved here from Chile in 1985 – 10 years before Angelica was born. Her father, Miguel, was a union leader and her grandmother was part of socialist politician Salvador Allende’s successful presidential campaign in 1970. Then, as a result of the military dictatorship of 1973, the family became targets and they fled to Australia as political refugees. Angelica grew up in Davoren Park, where she says there was very much a strong Australian culture.
“We’d go home at night and (the house) was this little microcosm of Chile,” she says. “We spoke Spanish and only ate Chilean meals. I think the most beautiful things that allowed me to keep that identity were the music and the food – the culture is shared so innately through those things.”
It’s this same love and pride of culture that she’s determined to pass on to her children, just as her parents did so lovingly for her.
“My mum is quite an icon in the Latin American community – I think both my parents are,” Angelica says. “We lived quite a simple life, but there was always a very strong connection to our culture and we were figuring out how to make that work in the Australian landscape.”
Angelica’s mother, Maria, was so intent on keeping their language alive that she started the Gabriela Mistral Latino American School and Cultural Centre for Angelica to attend when she was four years old.
“That’s a legacy that we’re lucky enough to carry on and now my little girls go to that school.”
Some of her strongest food memories revolve around her grandmother’s soup, which she’d make for Angelica when she was sick – and sometimes Angelica would feign illness just so she could devour the dish.
“We always cooked in a community. It’s not something you just do with your family – you do it with three or four other families, make a big batch and share it with everyone else.”
School for Angelica was at St Thomas Moore School in Elizabeth Park and Gleeson College in Golden Grove. It was here that she developed a love for science, the environment and conservation, joining the Wilderness Society of South Australia, of which she remains a member. After school, Angelica completed a physiotherapy degree and opened her own practice at Uraidla, specialising as a lymphoedema practitioner (part of her job is helping patients with swelling caused by the build-up of lymph fluid, often post-cancer treatment).
In September last year, Angelica opened Stepney-based luxury rejuvenation clinic, Sculpt, where she continues her work in lymphoedema, while other staff members specialise in areas such as holistic cosmetic treatments.
Business has boomed and Angelica has since purchased a warehouse two doors down from Sculpt, which was going to be used for car parking, but the plan is to now turn it into a space she’s calling “Obra” – which translates to work or construction site – and will be a place for her Latin community to come together.
“It’s essentially going to be a space that various community groups will be able to use for things they organise. I’d like it to be something where eventually we can bring Latin American artists,” she explains.
All of this means that Angelica has become a woman of many facets. There’s the part of her who is the mother to six-year-old Esperanza and three-year-old Florencia. But she’s also a meticulous businesswoman, with more burgeoning ventures on the cards. And there’s also the facet of her that is community leader and activist, who takes a keen and passionate interest in international politics. “The very reason my parents are here is because they stood up to systems of injustice, so I think it would be remiss of me not to live and breathe that myself.”
Lastly, there’s the facet of her that champions her own Latin American community.
Tonight, of course, she’s host. And the women she’s invited to share her table are a culmination of all the little elements that have made up her life.
Firstly, there’s business partner Luccia Zabala, with whom Angelica has started the retail platform, Dabeiba, which sells handmade artisan pieces from Latin America. Then there’s Daniella Guevara, owner of Port Adelaide’s Mexican restaurant, La Popular Taqueria. Mexican-born Daniella has arrived with fresh tortillas and explains that Mexican food is often misunderstood: it’s not as quick and easy as some people may think; in fact, Daniella has milled her own corn that has gone into tonight’s tortillas.
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Then comes Latoya Aroha Rule, an Aboriginal and Maori person, whom Angelica met when the two were volunteering for the Adelaide Day Centre for the Homeless for many years – Angelica began when she was 14 years old.
Angelica says Latoya is one of the people in her life who inspires her to do better and to be better; Latoya is a PhD candidate and research associate at Jumbunna Institute for Indigenous Education and Research at the University of Technology Sydney and has been instrumental in a movement to stop Aboriginal deaths in custody (their own brother died in police custody in 2016). Latoya was named as one of five Racial Justice Guardians of the Year in Time Magazine’s People of the Year 2020 edition.
The next guest is Jasmin Shahin, head of strategy of the OTR Group. Jasmin’s family, who owns Peregrine Corporation, sold OTR in March this year, and Jasmin has remained with the brand. Angelica and Jasmin became friends through a shared concern for the people of Palestine.
Jasmin is passionate about many causes and sits on the board of the Adelaide Festival Centre and the Bundanon Trust, a charitable trust for Bundanon, a wildlife sanctuary and art museum embedded into the New South Wales landscape.
The last guest, Elise Cook, is co-owner of McLaren Vale winery Down the Rabbit Hole, and has become an ambassador for the Sculpt clinic.
In Angelica’s beautiful, sprawling home, everyone crowds into the kitchen, enjoying a cocktail on arrival – pisco sours – and Chilean wine.
As much as Angelica loves to cook, she’s brought in a little help so she’s able to be present with her guests. Olio Catering and Pour Me Another are helping with food and drinks.
Then, it’s over to Angelica’s dining space, where the table has been set with a rich, earthy table scape that includes hand-dyed napkins from Tinker in Hahndorf.
“I have such a strong connection to my Latin roots and love to reference this when hosting friends,” Angelica says. “I find that earthy tones and rich terracotta colours evoke a real sense of decadence while being inviting and warm.”
But as beautiful as the dinner party is, the real opulence in Angelica’s life isn’t to be found in the chandelier hanging from the ceiling, or the expensive Champagne.
“In my opinion, true luxury is the intangibles,” she explains. “My definition of luxury regards human connection over material possessions.
“Whether it’s finding peace in nature, having a deep conversation with loved ones, moments of self-care and prioritising personal growth, to me true luxury is found in people, places and experiences that bring joy, fulfilment and a sense of connection.”
And as if to demonstrate that very thought, the spontaneous salsa dancing around the dinner table starts.
“What a beautiful honour to have all these incredible humans in a room at the same time,” Angelica says. “It’s an honour to share ideas and life experiences with them.”
