Zarela Martinez


Zarela Martinez 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.

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.
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. 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.
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.
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 inspired by traditional Mexican textile designs were on sale at Walmart stores around the country.
In 2016 she starred in the movie , where she sang and acted.
In 2017, Martinez launched her first album as a singer Sad Songs from my Happy Heart.

Awards and accolades

Zarela lives in New York City. Her son Aarón Sanchez 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 Mestizo, in Kansas City, Kansas. Rodrigo became a lawyer.
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.