These past four weeks have been a whirlwind. OAXACA: Homecooking from the heart of Mexico hit the shelves on October 22nd 2019. Since the, we have been on Amazon’s Best Seller list week after week and have sold out in a few of our favorite book stores around the country. It is unbelievable to think this in fact, is real life. Our 2019 book tour has been a life changing experience, one that I will never forget. I never expected so many of you to come out to our events and be interested in the story of our family and our culture. This book tour has not only brought me closer to many of you, but to my siblings as well. Many of you know how close I am to my family. We work together, and celebrate life outside of work together. But never had we traveled the way we have these past few weeks. My sister Paulina and I went deeper into our Book Tour Chronicles on this week's episode of our Super Mamas Podcast. Hope you listen and laugh along with us.
This tour would not have been possible without the support of our brand partners, DELTA, AEROMEXICO, SCANPAN AND GLOBAL KNIVES. It was because of travel partner, DELTA and AEROMEXICO that my siblings and I were able to tour together. Delta has been my go-to airline for years and it was a dream to be able to partner and have their support these past few weeks.
Our partners SCANPAN and GLOBAL KNIVES gave away one 10-piece cookware set per stop and global knives to the first 10 guests who showed up to our stops. I felt so happy for every single person that was able to get their hands on these. I use them at home so I know first hand how incredible they are!
Brooklyn Stop
Brooklyn Stop:
Homecoming
Some of the questions I have gotten asked over and over again these past weeks have been about how the book came together. How did the idea come about? How did you manage to gather all the recipes? How long did it take? What did it take?
The truth is that writing a cookbook has always been at the top of my life goals list. A book that aside from documenting my family’s recipes, could also serve to document my parents immigration story from Oaxaca to Los Angeles. It all started with Jonah Strauss, who I met in 2015. He was having lunch at my restaurant and asked if I would be interested in having him as a book agent Even though at this point in my career a book deal seemed unreachable, I went along with it and signed with him. Time went by and he would check in with me from time to time, asking if I had begun to work on a book proposal. The first step for me was to find a writing partner, a professional who could help me articulate my words into pages. That took a while, almost three years actually. I could not figure out who that person could be. But timing is everything in life. My friend Paola and I had a casual lunch at the beginning of 2018. As our lunch was coming to an end, I shared with her my dilemma in finding a co-writter for the book. She mentioned her husband, Javier Cabral had just left his job as the food editor for Vice and that I should reach out. Well, I did and we were off to the races after that. Everything moved fairly quickly after my first conversation with Javier. We had a book proposal within a month and a signed book deal three months after that. And yes, it sounds crazy. But what was crazier was the timeline we gave ourselves to finish the manuscript. Javier and I wrote 120 recipes, and were able to put our family's story together in less than 7 months time.
Chicago stop:
Read it and Eat
I moved to Oaxaca in April of 2018 for a month. The entire time my mom and I worked tirelessly working every recipe thoroughly. We had a crazy schedule but we made it happen. It was incredibly special being able to work with my mom through this process. We both learned to speak the same kitchen language and respect each others taste and technique. I learned about sazon and how every single one of us should strive to search for our own.
At the end of September of 2018 we were shooting all the pictures in Oaxaca and in November of 2018 we turned in our manuscript’s 1st draft. A year later we are traveling the country promoting what feels a lifetime of work, tears, sweat, joy and laughs. We have had stops in Los Angeles, Pasadena, San Diego, Brooklyn, Chicago, and Portland. We are constantly adding dates, so stay tuned! I will be in DC on December 7th in a conversation w Chef Pati Jinich.
PORTLAND STOP:
VIA RAIZ
I am so thankful to every single one of you who have gone out of your way to buy a copy of our book. Our story is not only ours, but every immigrant who comes to this country with nothing but a dream and the courage to fight for it. I feel so blessed to have been given this platform and expose the world to our culture. Thank you from the bottom of heart for your endless support.