Food from my Heart: Cuisines of Mexico Remembered and Reimagined

"Food From My Heart" is Zarela Martinez's culinary autobiography in which she describes not only the foods of different times of her life but the way life was lived in Mexico then. She chronicles a way of life that she feels is mostly gone forever but that set her on her journey to success as a chef, restaurateur, entrepreneur and promoter of Mexican food and culture. Having grown up on the border with the United States, she was not acquainted with her Mexican roots. Her first visit to the state of Oaxaca, Mexico, changed all that and her love affair with Mexican regional cooking was born. Her description of her experiences while traveling and getting to know the states of Chiapas, Yucatan, Veracruz and other parts of the country shed light on a Mexico that is not widely known or understood in the United States. The book is peppered with stories, jokes and anecdotes about a most colorful and historically important family and the people she met along the way that brought her to New York and helped her achieve great success here. But this is no dilettante's vanity publication. It is built on a solid foundation of thorough and carefully researched information on the history of Mexican food, its ingredients and cooking techniques. There is a large section of basic recipes or "building blocks" as she likes to call them on which she developed her unique style of cooking known for it's layers of flavors. You'll find the recipes for many of the dishes she served at her restaurant Zarela for 23 years.