LATINA VOICES: SMART TALK (Cooking Community Culture), Sofia Adrogué…

Latina Voices: Smart Talk

On Latina Voices: Smart Talk Today, we celebrate Cooking, Community & Culture—Cocina, Comunidad y Cultura. We welcome Hilton’s Award winning Executive Chef  Ruffy Sulaiman &Goya Foods Texas’s Award winning General Manager  Luz Damaris Rosario.  Cognizant of the global pandemic, the mental epidemic within the pandemic with economic challenges for many,  we navigate with optimism, authenticity and pragmatism the second half of 2021, as  there is a need  for community, connectivity,   and perhaps a culinary excursion!   

 I am Sofia Adrogue’,  a 10 year Texas Super Lawyer,  and Host & Producer of today’s show.  A proud HoustonFirst Board member, honored to tape this show at our City’s  Hilton Americas Houston, as we engage, educate & empower with some Latina Voices: Smart Talk.   

Inspiring  us  to celebrate  the communication, the communion,  the culture,  & the culinary art of cooking is  Adán Medrano,  San Antonio-born Houstonian,  Texas food historian, writer, award winning cookbook author &  producer,  Medrano with a background in journalism, writing, and food, a Bachelor of Arts, a Master of Arts &  a certificate from the Culinary Institute of America.

One of his books  Truly Texas Mexican — with its award winning (nationally and internationally) food documentary — streaming on Amazon Prime, profound & philosophical &  worthy of watching, argues compellingly that regional cuisine, like barbacoa,  and its threaded histories and lineages, is a proud and rich living folk art tradition. 

Medrano provides  lessons of history, geography &  cultural identity with leading roles for  women.  In his book, dedicated to his parents, he recounts a conversation as a  6 year old with his Ama (Mama’). Thus, the impetus for the fabulous title “Don’t Count the Tortillas—The Art of Texas Mexican Cooking.” She often reminded him:  No cuentes las tortillas.

“Cooking is more than mere mechanics and feeding.  Cooking is about elemental connectedness and generosity. It is technical, creative, with the power to captivate.  It is art.”   Others’  histories, cultural self-identities and expressions of “comida casera” (home cooking) are proud hands that continue to shape the way we eat.

“What we’re trying to say with our food and celebrating the food is there is a way we can all share and really cook and serve a table where all are welcome,” Medrano says in the documentary. “That’s the new encounter food gives us.”

With true candor, I must confess  I do not know how to cook—although I can make a good cup of café.  That said, I appreciate the ritual and import of  breaking bread, beans and rice, even a bowl of cereal.  Experts note that a secret to raising happy, healthy, well-adjusted children?  Eat meals together as a family as often as you can, a main priority of strengthening your family. 

Cognizant that eating alone is a fact of life for many of us, if possible, we should try to eat with our  children—connection, social interaction, guidance, reminder of   basic life skill tools. 

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Written by The Millennial TV