LAS REINAS
"Of course my grandma would make it and even suck the eyeballs out."
Now Latin styles of eating - cilantro, whole fish and all - are mainstream as Hispanics have become the biggest U.S. minority, numbering more than 45 million, according to the 2005 Census.
The nascent interest in Latin flavors was foreshadowed in 1991, when sales of salsa outpaced those of all-American ketchup. By 2002, domestic tortilla sales reached $5.7 billion, capturing 32 percent of the bread market, the Tortilla Industry Association reported.
The growth of the Hispanic population, coupled with non-Latinos searching for new tastes, has opened the door for a wave of pan-Latina chefs with roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico and South America.
These women, who offer a dual appeal as Latinas living in America, are gaining national attention with cooking shows and books that bring their cuisine to a wider audience.
The mix of budding Latina cooking divas includes Colombian-born lifestyle guru Ingrid Hoffmann; Daisy Martinez, a Puerto Rican chef who champions traditional foods inspired by her New York City barrio; and Chef LaLa, aka Laura Diaz-Brown, who creates Mexican food with health in mind in Los Angeles.
San Diego restaurateur and chef Cruz fuses Latin and Asian tastes, reflecting her Los Angeles upbringing, while Tijuana, Mexico-based cooking teacher and chef Marcela Valladolid mixes Mexican ingredients with European dishes.
"The Latin thing is the next big thing in entertainment," said Beatriz Acevedo, president of HIP TV, a Santa Monica, Calif., production company that has created Latin lifestyle shows for networks such as Fine Living and USA Network. "As Latin culture grows, it will permeate the general market."
FRESH FLAVORS
Things were different in 1981, when chef and author Zarela Martinez (no relation to Daisy) first started showing off her regional dishes such as snapper hash, manchamanteles stew and duck in a semisweet sauce.
She met Cajun chef Paul Prudhomme on a trip to New Orleans; two months later she found herself cooking for visiting French chefs at a regional American cooking summit.
"At that time, all they knew was Tex-Mex," said Martinez, a native of Chihuahua, Mexico. "I just blew them away, because all of a sudden they had chipotle and a combination of cinnamon, cumin and cloves."
In the years since, Martinez has become an industry of one, with a successful eponymous restaurant in New York, several cookbooks, a PBS series on the cuisine and culture of Veracruz, and a line of housewares at Wal-Mart.
She paved the way for a new generation of Latina cooks who are helping Latinos reconnect with their traditional foods, but with a twist.
"People have forgotten a lot of the food," Martinez said. "By the third generation, you go back to try to reclaim it."
Daisy Martinez, whose PBS show is called "Daisy Cooks," says Latin food is popular because it's approachable.
"Latin food is ethnic but not alien," she said. "People are able to easily duplicate dishes ... in their own kitchen."
In her book "Daisy Cooks!" (Hyperion, $30), Martinez guides readers through such seemingly simple feats as making perfect yellow rice, sofrito or achiote oil. She feels so strongly about these basic seasonings that she posts the recipes on her Web site, www.daisycooks.com. They turn up again in more complicated yet homey dishes such as zuppa with clams or her roasted chicken, which gets a rubdown of garlic, oregano, vinegar and pepper, giving it a tangy, spicy kick.
"People want comfort food and foods that have an emotional connection," Martinez said. "They want a good roast chicken. It may not be Mom's roast chicken, but roast chicken touches you somewhere."
Cooking with grandmothers and aunts is a typical memory for girls growing up in Hispanic families. While male Latino chefs, such as Douglas Rodriguez and Guillermo Pernot, have garnered media attention of late, Diaz-Brown, who goes by the name Chef LaLa, believes it's time for women like her to get their turn.
"Latin women are considered the reina (queen) of the house," Diaz-Brown said. "Cooking ... is a very nurturing way of expressing how much we love someone."
Diaz-Brown, who wrote a book called "Latin Lover Lite" (Spencer Publications, $30), has developed a bilingual cooking and lifestyle show, "U'LaLa," which has yet to be picked up by a network.
After an unsuccessful stint on Martha Stewart's "Apprentice," Tijuana-based Valladolid landed a cooking show on Discovery en Espanol. She specializes in European food with a Latin twist, such as chipotle osso buco with cilantro gremolata.
Her show, set to debut this summer, will take viewers into Latino homes to experience a family recipe with a story behind it.
ART OF COOKING
Valladolid believes she's a reflection of the modern Latina, who is bilingual, has a career and maybe even a housekeeper, but likes cooking.
"With the sexual revolution, we were trying to separate ourselves from those domestic duties," Valladolid said. "Now we cook not because it's demanded, but because it's a beautiful art we can explore."
Cruz sees the new Latin food of her generation as quicker, more healthy and more diverse. Her dad was Puerto Rican, an uncle was from Peru, and her neighborhood friends came from Cuba, Japan and Thailand.
"We grew up in a neighborhood where people would cook and bring food over," she said. "I think it's California food, if you get down to the ethnic people that make up Los Angeles and Southern California."
At her restaurants, she serves multiethnic dishes such as Asian noodle bowls with coconut milk and lemon grass, or spicy black beans with brown rice and roast pork stuffed with pineapple. She shares the cross-cultural recipes in a new book, "Isabel's Cantina: Latin Flavors From the New California Kitchen" (Clarkson Potter, $27) will be released Aug. 28.
Hoffmann, a chef and caterer who lives in Miami, also relishes the cultural mix she finds in that city. "I eat the burger and the beans," she likes to say.
On her TV show, "Delicioso," which airs on Galavision/Univision, she presents fanciful parties and easy, colorful food and cocktails to match. Hoffmann, who once owned a clothing boutique, loves designing table settings that coordinate with the food.
"For me the idea of food and wine is showing the fun of being able to get together and break bread," Hoffmann said. "I want to bring people into it by making it so easy, fun and delicious that they want to cook."
A painting-party menu on her Web site, www.delicioso.com, includes raspberry margaritas and a Colombian arroz con pollo; at a spa party, guests dine on asparagus with ham and sip cucumber and ginger water while giving themselves oatmeal masks.
Right now, Hoffmann is en fuego - on fire - going into the third season of "Delicioso" and producing an eight-page spread each month in Buenhogar, the Spanish version of Good Housekeeping. In 2008, she will release a cookbook, also published by Clarkson Potter.
Even though she's an American woman, Daisy Martinez feels it's important for all Latinos to cherish their old recipes and the art of a simply satisfying meal cooked from scratch.
"I keep telling young people today: You cannot forget the food of your mothers and grandmothers," she said. "It's the legacy, the inheritance that one day you will leave to your children and families. You are robbing them if you turn your back on that."
BRANDIED SHRIMP
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 tablespoon butter
5 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 pounds large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1/8 teaspoon hot pepper sauce, such as Tabasco
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1/2 cup to 1 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons chopped fresh oregano or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/4 cup brandy
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
Yields 4 servings.
Heat oil and butter in 6-quart pan over medium heat. Add garlic and cook until pale golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Add shrimp, Worcestershire sauce, Tabasco, and salt and pepper, to taste. Stir and cook until shrimp are barely pink and opaque, about 1 minute. Stir in ketchup and oregano, and continue to cook until shrimp are almost cooked through, 2 minutes.
Increase heat to high, add brandy and cook until shrimp are fully cooked and alcohol has evaporated, no longer than 1 minute. Sprinkle with parsley and serve.
- Chef Ingrid Hoffmann of Delicioso.com.
MAMI'S POTATO SALAD
2 pounds small (2-inch) white new potatoes, washed and quartered
Fine sea salt or kosher salt
2 chorizo, andouille or smoked garlicky sausages (6 to 8 ounces), casings removed and cut in 1/4-inch dice
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1 1/2 cups mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
2 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and halved
1 large red bell pepper, cored, seeded and finely diced
1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely shredded
1/2 teaspoon white wine vinegar or other vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
Yields 8 to 10 servings.
Place potatoes in pot and add enough water to cover by 2 to 3 inches. Add 2 tablespoons salt and bring water to a boil. Cook until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes. Drain and let stand to cool.
Heat skillet over medium heat. Add chorizo or sausage and cook, tossing it around, until sizzling and shiny, 1 or 2 minutes.
Transfer potatoes to mixing bowl and sprinkle with onion powder.
Combine mayonnaise, sour cream and 3 to 4 tablespoons water in bowl. Push egg yolks through a sieve into dressing, stir well and pour over potatoes.
Chop egg whites roughly and add to salad along with red pepper and carrot. Stir gently until vegetables are coated with dressing. Add vinegar, chorizo, and salt and pepper, to taste, and stir again.
If you like creamier salad, add warm water, a little at a time, until dressing reaches desired consistency. Transfer salad to serving bowl and garnish with cilantro.
- "Daisy Cooks!" by Daisy Martinez, Hyperion.
Maria C. Hunt writes about food for the San Diego Union-Tribune.
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