Zarela Martinez is a restaurateur and cookbook author located in New York City. Her mother, Aida Gabilondo, a cookbook author, taught her how to cook. Martinez is a Mexican Cultural Institute of New York’s Board of Directors member.
Facts of Zarela Martinez
| Full Name | Zarela Martinez |
|---|---|
| Nationality | American |
| Date of Birth | 1947// |
| Birth Country | United States Of America |
How much is the net worth of Zarela Martinez in 2022?
Author and restaurateur Zarela Martinez resides in New York City. She learned to cook from her mother, Aida Gabilondo, who also writes cookbooks. Martinez is a director on the board of the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York. Her estimated $1 million net worth. Bobby Parrish, an American cookbook author, has a similar net worth.
American chef, television personality, and entrepreneur Aaron Sanchez has a $4 million net worth. In El Paso, Texas, Aaron Sanchez was born in February 1976. Mestizo, a Mexican restaurant in Kansas City, has Sanchez as a co-owner. He competed in Iron Chef America in season 2, and one of his matches ended in a tie.
Personal life of Zarela Martinez
Zarela Martinez resides in New York City. The name of Zarela’s husband is Jamie Gillis. Martnez was given a Parkinson’s Disease diagnosis in 2004 after being hurt in an accident with a taxi. She dated Jamie Gillis from 2003 until his passing in 2010.
Aarón Sánchez, son of Zarela Sanchez, co-stars in the television shows Chopped and Heat Seekers, serves as a guest chef on MasterChef season 7, and owns and operates the Johnny Sanchez restaurant in New Orleans. Her son Rodrigo is a lawyer.
Two Sons of Zarela Martinez
Aarón Sanchez and Rodrigo Sanchez, an attorney in New York City, were born in Chihuahua, Mexico, in 1976 to restaurateur Zarela Martinez and Adolfo Sanchez. In the end, they moved to El Paso, Texas. At a young age, he began cooking by helping his mother make traditional Mexican food for her catering business.
His mother established the renowned Café Marimba after coming to New York in 1984, and Sánchez began working in a commercial kitchen. When they were 16 years old, Sánchez’s mother sent her kids to New Orleans for the summer to work with Chef Paul Prudhomme. After Sánchez received his diploma from Dwight School, he started working full-time for Prudhomme in New Orleans.
Sánchez was wed to singer Ifé Mora from 2009 through 2012. His daughter’s name is Yuma. On episode 21 of MasterChef season 9, he revealed that Jonathan Waxman served as his coach.
Career of Zarela Martinez
Through her restaurants and writings, Zarela Martinez has been a major force in introducing traditional Mexican food to Americans. She has hosted food festivals in New York City and given presentations, demonstrations, and cooking workshops on Mexican food and culture.
Martinez and Chef Paul Prudhomme became friends when they met in a cooking class in New Orleans, and in 1979 Martinez started her own catering business in El Paso. Martinez founded Zarela, a Mexican eatery known as a pioneer of regional Mexican cuisine in New York City. The restaurant shut operations in 2011, citing rising expenses and money problems brought on by the prolonged recession.
Martinez has appeared on a number of television programs, and her cookbook Zarela’s Veracruz was written as an accompaniment to the PBS program Zarela! La Cocina Veracruzana, which aired in 2001.
Zarela Martinez Beyond Cooking
The Zarela Casa brand of soft goods (tablecloths, placemats, napkins, shower curtains, towels and other bath products, cushions) with traditional Mexican textile patterns were marketed between 2004 and 2007 in Walmart stores across the country.
In the 2016 movie Moronga, Zarela had an appearance and performed. Sad Songs from a Happy Heart, Martinez’s debut album, was published in 2017. She debuted a program called Cooking in Mexican from A to Z on Heritage Radio Network in 2020.
She and her son, Chef Aarón Sánchez, co-host the program, which investigates Mexico’s food, flavors, and history via lively discussions with their guests. A Taste for Life with Zarela, published in 2021, offered her encouraging framework for coping with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and eating wholesome, delectable cuisine.
Zarela Martinez launched a podcast, Cooking in Mexican from A to Z
Cooking in Mexican from A to Z is a podcast that Zarela Martinez launched on the Heritage Radio Network in 2020. She co-hosts the program with her son, Chef Aarón Sánchez, and together they analyze Mexico’s food, flavors, and history via lively discussions with their guests.
Food, drink, and agriculture are the focus of the 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization Heritage Radio Network. The member-supported radio station receives more than one million monthly listeners from more than 200 nations.
Food from My Heart: Cuisines of Mexico Remembered and Reimagined
Zarela’s Best International Book of the Year is Food from My Heart: Cuisines of Mexico. Reminiscences and Reimaginations of The James Beard Foundation (1993, nominated).
Named after James Beard, a well-known food writer, educator, and cookbook author who is also known as the Dean of American Cookery, the James Beard Foundation is a nationwide non-profit culinary arts organization that was founded in New York City.
Who Is Zarela Martinez’s Son Aarón Sánchez?
Mexican celebrity chef, restaurateur, TV host, cookbook author, and philanthropist Aarón Sánchez was born on February 12, 1976. He is the co-owner and executive chef at Johnny Sánchez, a Mexican restaurant in New Orleans. Faith Jenkins is an attorney and television personality, too.
Aaron co-hosted the Emmy-nominated Taco Trip on the Cooking Channel and co-starred in the hit Food Network programs Chopped and Chopped Jr.
He competed on Iron Chef America, and in Season 2’s Battle Black Bass, he and Masaharu Morimoto were the only two cooks to tie in a fight.
Career of Aarón Sánchez
Aarón attended Johnson & Wales University in Providence, Rhode Island, to study culinary arts in 1996 after working for Prudhomme. In 1996, he came back to New York to work in the Patria restaurant’s kitchen under the guidance of nuevo-Latino chef Douglas Rodriguez. Sánchez met Alex Garcia, his future business partner, while working there.
In 1996, Garcia resigned from Patria and collaborated with Sánchez to found Erizo Latino. Reviews of the establishment characterized it as laid-back and rustic, and stated that “the dinner is enticingly healthful, and the kitchen’s finest dishes give a wonderful introduction to Central and South American food.”
Sánchez was promoted to executive chef at L-Ray and developed a specialty for food from the Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico. He created a restaurant with pre-Revolutionary Cuba as its inspiration after taking on another executive chef position at Isla. After that, Sanchez moved to San Francisco, where he worked for Chef Reed Hearon at Rose Pistola.
Chef Aarón Sánchez
In 2012, the Mexican eatery Centrico in New York City closed with Aaron Sánchez as its chef. He opened the Baltimore restaurant Johnny Sánchez with his friend and fellow chef John Besh in August 2014. Baltimore’s site was shut down in September 2017.
The two opened a second Johnny Sanchez shop in New Orleans in October 2014. Besh was previously a part of Johnny Sanchez, but it is now owned and operated by Aarón Sánchez, Miles Landrem, and partners Drew Mire.
He took over Graham Elliot’s position as a judge on MasterChef US Season 8 in 2017, working with Christina Tosi and Gordon Ramsay to sample, assess, and analyze contestants’ baking and cooking efforts before selecting the next MasterChef. Although he is an expert in many different cooking techniques and cuisines, but he produces traditional Mexican food on a regular basis all year long.
He mentioned that he lived close to The Trolley Café in New Orleans when he made an appearance as an extra expeditor in the first episode of Gordon Ramsay’s 24 Hours to Hell and Back Season 2 in 2019. Sánchez released his book, Where I Come From Life Lessons from a Latino Chef, on October 1. The guest judged a Mexican food challenge on Hell’s Kitchen season 19 in 2020.
