While Freitas has certainly influenced others, she has also gained a great deal from these interactions, but probably the most significant recent impact on her career has been the pandemic. Previously, she nearly lived (and sometimes slept) at her restaurant, but lockdown allowed her to spend uninterrupted days with Mauro, which radically altered her perspective. "It was the first time I really felt like his mother instead of the aunt who rarely gets to see him. I couldn"t even take him to school before, because I was always working by then." Now that she has glimpsed an existence that is about more than just work, she won"t go back. "To be happy in the kitchen, you have to be happy outside of it," she said.