COOKBOOK SPOTLIGHT: LATIN-ISH

I’m excited to spotlight my friend Marisel Salazar’s “Latin-ish” cookbook. I met Marisel during our press trip to Spain and couldn’t wait to get my hands on her book. “Latin-ish” celebrates American Latino cuisines and features over 100 recipes. Marisel—whose heritage is Cuban, Panamanian, and Peruvian—spent parts of her life in Panama City, Hawaii, Japan, Madrid, and New York City, where she now lives. Through research and beautiful storytelling, Salazar weaves together a collection of recipes alongside food history that explores migration, identity, and family traditions (plus beautiful photos by Hipolito Torres).

For example, in “The Original Nachos,” Salazar recounts the history and story of how this popular dish was invented at the Victory Club in Mexico by a maître d'hôtel named Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya, who had a spur-of-the-moment snack idea for a regular guest in the 1940s. He sprinkled Colby cheese and pickled jalapeño slices over corn tortilla chips and it was an instant hit.

“…My experience as a multicultural immigrant has inspired me to look at how migration shapes food byond just my own family’s history. After all, America is a country of immigrants, so we all have embraced cuisines from other cultures on a vast scale,” remarks Salazar in the introduction.

I hope you will love “Latin-ish, ” which is a beautiful collection of recipes and storytelling of history and cultural roots that celebrates American Latino cuisines and recipes.