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BOOK OF THE MONTH: WHERE I COME FROM: LIFE LESSONS FROM A LATINO CHEF BY AARON SANCHEZ





ABRAMS PRESS
Chef Aarón Sánchez’s memoir touched my soul. As a fellow Mexican American, I grew up a lot like Aarón and shared the same kind of traditional Mexican cuisines every night at the dinner table. I have a new respect and understanding for the recipes that were passed along within my family, and I now have a deeper appreciation because I recognize that this is connection to my past that will live on forever.  –Oscar de la Hoya, Boxing Legend




Happy 2020!  The Latina Book Club has chosen a savory memoir/ cookbook for its first Book of the Month of this new decade. 

WHERE I COME FROM: LIFE LESSONS FROM A LATINO CHEF by Aarón Sánchez is inspiring, passionate and delicious.  Right from the start, readers learn that Aarón equates his love of food with his love for his family and heritage.  He thanks his mother, who pushed him out of the nest at 16 to go work with a well-known New Orleans chef, for his love of cooking especially traditional Mexican cuisine.  With vivid detail that engages all the senses, and lively language (lots of f-bombs!), Aarón is frank in sharing his ups and downs in the culinary universe, but with perseverance, tenacity, courage and cojones he’s become a MasterChef, author, entrepreneur, TV personality, and philanthropist.  Happy Reading and Happy Cooking!!



SUMMARY:  America’s most prominent Latino chef shares the story behind his food, his family, and his professional journey.
Before Chef Aarón Sánchez rose to fame on shows like MasterChef and Chopped, he was a restless Mexican-American son, raised by a fiercely determined and talented woman who was a successful chef and restaurateur in her own right—she is credited with bringing Mexican cuisine to the New York City dining scene. In many ways, Sánchez, who lost his father at a young age, was destined to follow in his mother Zarela’s footsteps. He spent nights as a child in his family’s dining room surrounded by some of the most influential chefs and restaurateurs in New York. At 16, needing direction, he was sent by his mother to work for renowned chef Paul Prudhomme in New Orleans.
In this memoir, Sánchez delves into his formative years with remarkable candor, injecting his story with adrenaline and revealing how he fell in love with cooking and started a career in the fast-paced culinary world. Sánchez shares the invaluable lessons he learned from his upbringing and his training—both inside and outside the kitchen—and offers an intimate look into the chaotic and untraditional life of a professional chef and television personality. This memoir is Sánchez’s highly personal account of a fatherless Latino kid whose talent and passion took him to the top of his profession.#


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  Chef Aarón Sánchez is an award-winning chef, TV personality, cookbook author, and philanthropist. He is the costar of the hit series MasterChef and MasterChef Jr., and has starred and guest-starred on many television series on Food Network and Cooking Channel. Aarón has won a James Beard award for Television Studio Program (2012) and was the host of the Emmy-nominated Cooking Channel series, Taco Trip.  Learn more about him at www.chefaaronsanchez.com.


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