Zarela Martinez

Zarela Martinez (born in Agua Prieta) is a New York City-based restaurateur and cookbook author. She learned cooking from her mother Aida Gabilondo, also a cookbook author. Martinez serves on the Board of Directors for the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York.

Zarela Martinez
Born
Agua Prieta, Mexico
OccupationRestaurateur, author
Partner(s)Jamie Gillis
ChildrenAarón Sanchez, Rodrigo Sanchez
Parent(s)Aida Gabilondo
RelativesFrancisco Gabilondo Soler

Biography

Martinez has been instrumental in introducing Americans to authentic Mexican food, through her restaurants and writings. She has organized food festivals in New York City and given cooking lessons, demonstrations, and lectures on Mexican cuisine and culture.[1] She co-hosts a podcast, Cooking in Mexican from A to Z, on the Heritage Radio Network. Along with her son, Chef Aarón Sánchez, she explores the food, flavors, and history of Mexico through lively conversations with their guests.

Chef Paul Prudhomme served as Martinez' mentor after he discovered her in a New Orleans cooking class and around 1979, Martinez opened her catering business El Paso.[2] In 1987 Martinez opened Zarela, a Mexican restaurant that is credited as being a pioneer of regional Mexican cuisine in New York City. The restaurant closed in 2011, citing rising expenses and financial issues prompted by an increasing economic crisis.[3]

Martinez has made several television appearances and her 2001 cookbook Zarela’s Veracruz was written as the companion book to the 2001 PBS series Zarela! La Cocina Veracruzana. In 2004 she was labeled one of seven individuals that helped redefined the American culinary landscape since the last half of the twentieth century by the U.S. State Department’s online publication E-Journal USA: U.S. Society & Values.[4]

As of March 2017, she was working on a book about naturally light Mexican food.

Beyond cooking

From 2004-2007 The Zarela Casa line of soft goods (tablecloths, place mats napkins, shower curtains, towels and other bath items, pillows) inspired by traditional Mexican textile designs were on sale at Walmart stores around the country.[5]

In 2016 she starred in the movie Moronga, where she sang and acted.

In 2017, Martinez launched her first album as a singer Sad Songs from my Happy Heart.

Awards and accolades
  • Best International Book of the Year for Food from My Heart: Cuisines of Mexico Remembered and Reimagined, The James Beard Foundation (1993, nominated)[6]
  • Who's Who of American Food Professionals, James Beard Foundation (2013)

Personal life

Zarela lives in New York City. Her son Aarón Sánchez is the co-star of the television shows Chopped, Heat Seekers and guest chef at MasterChef season 7 and the chef/owner of the restaurant Johnny Sanchez, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her son Rodrigo is a lawyer. Zarela has two grandsons and a granddaughter.

In 2004, Martinez was diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease, triggered by an accident in which she was hit by a taxi cab. She was the partner of Jamie Gilis from 2003 until his death in 2010.[7]

References
  1. "Martinez, Zarela. Papers of Zarela Martinez, 1920-2013 (inclusive), 1983-2002 (bulk): A Finding Aid Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University".
  2. "MEMORABLE DISHES FROM A MASTER MEXICAN CHEF". NY Times. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  3. "Foodies say adios to pioneering Mexican midtown restaurant Zarela - but not chef". NY Daily News. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  4. "The Taste Setters" (PDF). E-Journal USA: U.S. Society & Values. Retrieved 8 December 2013.
  5. Americans Let Their Taste Trot the Globe
  6. Beard Foundation unveils 1993 award nominees
  7. "Martinez, Zarela. Papers of Zarela Martinez, 1920-2013 (inclusive), 1983-2002 (bulk): A Finding Aid Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University".
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