Finishing school in Guadalajara -breadcrumb flowers and cooking

Prompted by my upcoming trip to Guadalajara where I’ll be revisiting old haunts and seeing my university mates,  I started thinking how I got to Guadalajara from El Paso, Texas in the first place.
Having graduated in the top 10% of my high school class at Loretto Academy, I fully expected to go on to college [...]

Julia/Julie and Julia/Me and some sad goodbyes

Though I’d love to keep my story on Budd Schulberg up forever because I loved him so and want to honor him, it’s time to move on.  There’s much too much going on in the food world. You can still find Budd’s story in the archives where it will live forever as will the [...]

Oaxaca Food Conference – El Saber del Sabor

When anyone asks me where they should go to experience the real Mexico, I do not hesitate one minute before suggesting Oaxaca. There you will find the quintessential Mexico, its heart and soul.  Beyond it’s spectacular setting, Oaxaca has everything — warm hospitality, art, arts and crafts so admirably promoted by FOFA (Friends of Oaxacan [...]

The Best Thing I Ever Ate- Creamy Rice recipe

Ever since I appeared on  the Food Network show The Best Thing I Ever Ate with my son, chef and Food Network star, Aaron Sanchez my website www.zarela.com has gone through the roof with viewers  signing  up for updates, writing me to ask that  share the recipe and visiting the restaurant in droves.  It literally [...]

Chef of the Day on Cookstr

I will be featured as chef of the day on Cookstr.com.  Please check in.
Best,
Z

Introducing Pedro de Aguinaga

It saddened me deeply when Pedro Luis de Aguinaga, my close, close friend retired from the newspaper world and returned back home to live in Nayarit.  Pedro is a wonderful writer with a very distinct voice and particular view of life and I knew that I would miss his columns terribly.  I speak to him [...]

Concepcion Portillo de Carballido: My first Oaxacan Teacher

The first thing I do when I get to a new place is go to a bookstore and get all the local cookbooks. The main bookstore in Oaxaca had two that immediately caught my eye: Maria Concepcion Portillo de Carballido’s Oaxaca y su Cocina and Tradiciones Gastronomicas Oaxaquenas by Ana Maria Guzman de [...]

Tomates de Milpa- Currant tomatoes

Well it’s finally tomato season in New York and Tim Stark of  Eckerton Hill Farm , a frequent contributor to Gourmet Magazine who sells an amazing variety of chiles and heirloom tomatoes will soon probably have currant tomatoes or tomates de milpa (literally field tomatoes,) as they are called in the Catemaco region of Veracruz.
This [...]

Budd Schulberg:” What’s for dessert?

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My son Aaron’s new show debuts tonight

It seems that any time you turn on the Food Network, my son Aaron is on it. Not only is he a judge on Chopped but the piece he did with me on the Best Thing I Ever Ate was so successful that they keep running it.  TONIGHT he debut in his own show Chefs [...]

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