I’ve spent years cooking on camera, interviewing chefs about the food they cared most about, and sitting in kitchens that weren’t mine.

Lately, the work that pulls at me most is something different. Something much closer to home.

So, I keep thinking about what it would look like to bring both of those threads together. The curiosity, the camera, the cooking, but turned toward the food I actually came from.

If you’d want to see this become something more, I’d genuinely love to know.

#puertoricanfood #puertoricanrecipes #puertoricancooking ...

There isn’t a Puerto Rican dish in my kitchen that doesn’t start here.

Sofrito is our base. The green, herbaceous foundation that gives Puerto Rican food its unmistakable flavor. Some families add ají dulce, others swear by recao, and some skip cilantro altogether, but the bones are always the same.

Make a jar. Freeze it in portions. Use it in rice, beans, stews, eggs, whatever needs depth. There is no Puerto Rican kitchen without it.

#sofrito #puertoricanrecipes #puertoricancooking #puertoricanfood ...

Most of what I knew about my mother’s cooking, I lost when I lost her. The recipes she made. The steps she never wrote down. The seasoning she knew without measurements.

So, now I sit with my grandmother, my aunt, and my extended family to recover the very essence of who she was. I bring my scribbles and ask every question I can, including the ones I should have asked my mom when I had the chance. This is the part of my work that may go unnoticed but the work I care about most.

This is not the prettiest reel I’ll post. It is not the most viral. It is the slow, urgent work of writing down what simply remains, so what we carry doesn’t disappear when we inevitably do.

If your family still has someone who cooks this way, please sit with them. Bring a notebook. Ask the questions. Write down the recipes. Keep your family legacy alive. ❤️

#puertoricanrecipes #puertoricanfood #familyrecipes #cookbookrecipes ...