• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

So while the crickets were chilling in my pantry, I discovered early on that I also loved shopping (and the ingredients) at the markets in San Diego. I’m the first one to admit life is much more practical on the northern side of the border. You can find anything you want if you look hard enough. Who needs to make puff pastry or fresh pasta when you can find perfect, ready-made dough in the frozen foods section of your supermarket? So why not marry the two? Why not keep it Mexican at its roots but easy to prepare?

My food, as you will find in this book, is very much like me. It’s Mexican but influenced by other cultures. It is sophisticated in its presentation but easy to prepare. My recipes are also not the 100 percent authentic and traditional moles, pipiáns, or salsas you’ll find in cookbooks by masters like Diana Kennedy. The books written by Miss Kennedy in the 1970s were passed down to me from my grandfather and have been instrumental in my formation as a professional cook. But I don’t have time for that kind of cooking when I have to get dinner on the table for my young son.

Here you get all of the authentic flavors without the fuss. No shopping for fifteen hard-to-find ingredients and then slaving in the kitchen for hours. The vast majority of the ingredients here are readily available in U.S. supermarkets. Of course I hope a few of these dishes might inspire you to visit your local Latin market, but if you don’t have one, or don’t have the time, I give suitable substitutes for almost every specialty ingredient that will yield equally authentic—but most important, delicious—results.

I’ve even added an “*” to denote the recipes that are low in fat and a “” to indicate those that can be prepared in close to 30 minutes. Let’s face it: you’re running out of excuses not to cook this stuff.

* * *

But first let me tell you how this all started for me personally. My passion for food and entertaining was ignited during one of my first jobs in the culinary world. I was an assistant instructor at my aunt Marcela Rodriguez’s cooking school, one of the first in Tijuana. Hoping to get into a professional kitchen, I packed my ‘98 Mustang and landed a job as a hostess in a trendy Los Angeles restaurant. I wasn’t allowed anywhere near a stovetop. For that reason, in addition to the fact that young women don’t leave Tijuana unless they’re in school or married—at least not in my family—I opted to enroll at the Los Angeles Culinary Institute, much to my parents’ relief.

After graduation, I serendipitously landed at Bon Appétit magazine. A lot of what I know, I learned there. I became a much more disciplined cook as well as a student of countless cuisines and ingredients. I began to appreciate sharing delicious food with people. When Bon Appétit devoted an entire issue to Mexico, I spent weeks testing authentic Mexican recipes. Current editor-in-chief Barbara Fairchild, along with the other editors, described the food as exquisite. I was hooked. Opening people’s eyes to the delicacies of Mexico is my calling. But I wasn’t ready to spread the word quite then. As a professional cook, I knew I needed to learn pastries.

I’ve never enjoyed baking. I don’t crave sweets and chocolate isn’t my thing. (Do I hear a collective gasp?) So, I left Bon Appétit to specialize in classic French pastries at the Ritz-Escoffier school in Paris. I made puff pastry every day for three months. Let me tell you that I now purchase mine frozen, but if I’m put to the test, I can make the flakiest puff pastry you’ve ever tasted.

My experience in Paris and Tijuana taught me that I love learning and teaching. I had experience doing cooking segments on local television in Tijuana, so I moved back home with the hope of starting my own cooking school. I turned my dining room into a cooking classroom, was the food editor for a Tijuana newspaper, and appeared regularly on a morning news program.

It took Martha Stewart to slow me down. I was cast on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, which led to my own cooking