In her new Latin-ish cookbook, food writer and critic Marisel Salazar explores the breadth of American Latino cuisines.
Did you know that Cuban sandwiches originated in a cigar factory town in western Florida — and not in the island nation its name comes from? Or that an American engineer invented the Daiquirí, in Cuba? Or that the patent for a hard-shell taco machine went to a Mexican man in Manhattan? And that Texas chili con carne has roots in an Aztec chile stew? These are some of the fascinating histories and recipes explored in Marisel Salazar‘s new cookbook, Latin-ish: More Than 100 Recipes Celebrating American Latino Cuisines.
Salazar — whose roots are Cuban, Panamanian, and Peruvian — has lived across the country from New York to Hawaii, not to mention being born in Panama City and living in Japan for a stint. She’s long straddled different cultures, finding ways to make various food traditions and dishes her own. Salazar has contributed to the Michelin Guide, worked as a restaurant critic, served as a James Beard Awards judge, and is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and the International Association of Culinary Professionals.
“Many cookbook authors celebrate the traditional cuisine of their immigrant families, but my experience as a multicultural immigrant has inspired me to look at how migration shapes food beyond just my own family’s history,” she writes in the introduction. “Yes, you’ll find some recipes from my experience and my family, but by tracing the evolution of Latino cuisines in this country, you also will find recipes from your family and heritage.”
Broken out by meal — breakfast, lunch, dinner, desserts, beverages, spices and sauces — the Latin-ish cookbook offers a broad swath of recipes. There’s a Muhammara Breakfast Sandwich with Syrian, Jewish, and Panamanian roots. You’ll find San Diego Fish Tacos, Rainbow Tortillas, Guava Thumbprint Cookies, a Frozen Mango Margarita, Arkansas Delta Tamales, New Mexico Breakfast Burritos, Tres Leches Torrejas, and Mofongo Mashed Potatoes.
Among many, many others.
Salazar took a little time out of her nationwide book tour to chat with Food Fanatic about the book, her “clandestine granola business,” and what she hopes you take from the Latin-ish cookbook!
Food Fanatic: You talk about this in the intro to the book, but can you elaborate on the meaning behind the name “Latin-ish” and why that’s an important distinction?
Marisel Salazar: There has been a whole slew of “-ish” cookbook names: Indian-ish, Jew-ish, Greek-ish, Healthy-ish, etc., as well as television, like Black-ish, for example. And each particular -ish meaning is dependent upon the subject matter and intention of the writer.
The “-ish” can mean a little bit, somewhat, having a touch or trace, related to, a characteristic of, inclined to, etc. OR, in informal contexts, it means to make the reference sound deliberately vague and approximate.
So sure, Latin-ish, as I prescribed above, could mean any of those definitions, but here is how I intended MY -ish: This cookbook is not a traditional Latin American cookbook; it is an American cookbook, about the evolution of Hispanic cuisine in the United States; or cuisine developed by Americans abroad in Hispanic/Latin American countries, or food developed by Hispanics FOR American taste that I’ve embedded themselves into our gastronomy. There are a lot of these stories, actually. The -ish definitions above are all found in Latin-ish.
These are more than just Hispanic twists on American food and vice versa. They are assimilated foods, foods that came into being due to immigration, diaspora, because of geopolitical events, science, trends, pop culture, availabilities, and even happy accidents.
FF: You write in the intro that you want to take on the “arbitrary, lingering divide between Latino and American food.” Can you elaborate on it?
MS: Giving something a name is powerful. Defining it, classifying it, and labeling it. It gives it meaning, and identity. American Latino cuisine has been nameless and classless for hundreds of years. Yes, there are regional fragments that have their own names, but no one has unified it, and surveyed it as a united gastronomic ecosystem. Now folks who cook these foods or identify with these foods have a place for it, we can begin to expand and grow upon their specific cooking methodologies, ingredients, and histories. No one quite knew where to place Tex-Mex: it definitely wasn’t traditional Mexican food, and it wasn’t our idea of what we thought American food was. But it is both — it is American Latino cuisine, which is a sub-gastronomy of American food.
I am defining that lingering divide, giving it a name, giving it its own place.
FF: The book describes food eaten by people in the U.S. with Latin American roots as falling into 7 distinct cuisines (Tex-Mex, Southwest, Cal-Mex including Alta California, Floribbean, Latino Southern, NYC Latino including Nuyorican and Caribbean as well as Puebla York, and Midwest Latino). Do you consider yourself part of the NYC Latino category?
MS: I do not consider myself originally NYC Latino. I’m still trying to figure out my place actually. I’m an immigrant, I was born in Panama, and have lived all over the world. I spent my formative American cultural years in northern Virginia and upstate New York, and I have been living in New York City for the past decade and change, minus a one year stint in San Antonio where I wrote this cookbook. So yes, I am a Latina living in New York City, I’m not sure if I’m what I even defined in the book as NYC Latino.
I do find myself as a third-culture person. This I expand upon in the book.
FF: The book mentions your “clandestine granola business” — tell us about that!
MS: When I was in my early 20s and just moved to New York City, I was trying to find my place in the food and culinary industry. Did I want to be a restaurant cook? Did I want to be a food writer? Did I want to develop recipes or did I want to create a food product? So I tried a little bit of everything in order to find my sweet spot.
I always baked this particular granola recipe, that my family loved; they always said I should turn it into a business. It wasn’t until a close friend of mine, who owned restaurants and hotels in New York and I were on a visit. His mother had recently died, and where my words fell short, my granola didn’t. So I brought him a jar of my granola. He was French-Italian, popped some granola into his mouth and said, “Ahhhh Marisel, this is the caviar of granola, you must sell it to me,” so I started selling it to him at his various hotels and expanded my business from there.
I baked 50 pounds of granola out of my small New York City apartment and walked it down to my clients each week. I didn’t have enough money for taxis, let alone my own car, and there was no way I was going to risk my granola being scattered on the subway or stolen.
It was very physically demanding work, and I made no money, especially after accounting for my labor. I think it stroked my ego that somebody liked my granola so much that they were willing to buy it from me. But my passion wasn’t in it, so I eventually let it go. Maybe I’ll find it again with the proper resources to continue to expand and grow.
FF: What was the process like for researching different regional American Latino cuisines for this cookbook?
MS: It was a mix of different methods and mediums! Researching at libraries, internet, first-person interviews, poring through archives, traveling, and even social media. Living in San Antonio was geographically advantageous; I used it as a jump pad to other regions of the U.S. San Antonio also has the largest Mexican cookbook collection at the University of San Antonio.
FF: What do you hope readers come away with?
MS: This cookbook touches upon American Latino food you’ve probably grown up eating or experienced here in the U.S. and might not have known how that food came to be. I tell the stories of many familiar foods like California burritos, breakfast tacos, Delta tamales, Latino fried chicken, collard green empanadas, and celebrate — rather than other — these foods.
Want more? Salazar shared two of her recipes from the book with us, for her Guava Thumbprint Cookies and New Mexico Breakfast Burritos! Check them out.
