We have all been there. You want a taste of home, and so you call your mom or your Tia,

and ask them to share a beloved family recipe. Often there is resistance. The recipe is almost never

written down and measurements are inexact because the secret ingredient is almost always

experience and intuition. Well, what happens when in lieu of that knowledge you look for a cookbook

only to learn that there are virtually no books in print in the United States that celebrate

your food and your culture. This is what happened to Carla Vasquez as she looked for Salvador in

cookbooks and it set her off on an epic and unexpected quest to capture the Salvi soul.

Carla, I'm having that thing that I have, a thing is happening to me that happens periodically,

which is that I've followed you for so long that I have to remind myself that we're not actually friends.

I've never met you in person.

That's right. It's our first time talking in a formal capacity.

Yes, absolutely.

I mean, isn't that what's so wonderful about social?

Like, that is still the golden nugget in all of this chaotic energy that is social media.

Is the wonderful folks that you find each other and

you're on the same frequency it feels. So a part of you feels at home with these strangers.

When is it that you decide you want to pursue a formal culinary education?

So that happened because I was diagnosed. you decide you want to pursue a formal culinary education?

So that happened because I was diagnosed with a chronic health illness.

I am a type 1 diabetic.

So I think I have my little insulin pin here.

If you know anything about diabetes, you know that your success of being healthy with it is really dependent on what you eat. So when I was diagnosed, I was 23 and I was so confused. I had just

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