5 Questions for: Marcela Valladolid

by Rob Shuter, Posted Mar 18th 2010 @ 5:00PM

Courtesy Marcela Valladolid

What food do you eat that would give you a bad rep if other chefs knew about it?
MV: Oreo cookies. I can eat an entire package in one sitting.

Which celebrity would you love to cook for and why?
Roger Waters in exchange for an acoustic, live version of "Wish You Were Here."

What chef would you like to see naked?
Curtis Stone. Oh, and if somebody says me, please send their phone number.

What do you think of vegetarians?
Whatevs. It must stink to not ever feel full.

What's going on in the food world these days that's pissing you off?
Words like umami. I'm Mexican and unless you can explain it to me in Spanish I probably won't get it. And no one in all of Mexico knows what the heck umami is.

Food Network chef and cookbook author Marcela Valladolid prepares a fresh take on Mexican food and shares simple and authentic recipes in her series, Mexican Made Easy.

Filed Under: Chefs, Interviews
Tags: food network, Marcela Valladolid, mexican made easy

Chew on This

Royal Wedding Cake Details Revealed! - YumSugar

Make Your Own Pop Tarts - CHOW
Denny's Introduces a Maple Bacon Sundae - Eater
Whole Foods Opening Bars in Stores - USA Today
Rules Of Bar Etiquette -- For The Bartender - HuffPost Food

Reader comments (Page 1 of 1)

3-18-2010 @5:32PM ACL said... What a skewed perception of vegetarians!
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @8:29AM gobo said... Wow, she seems kinda.. vapid. She doesn't know what "umami" means? And she's a chef and author? Uh huh.

"It must stink to not ever feel full." -- Believe me, Marcela, you can feel full eating beans, rice, and vegetables. Just ask a MEXICAN!!
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @1:29PM CP said... The line about umami does make her seem kind of willfully ignorant Umami isn't that hard of a concept to explain, and it's not as though it's made-up. Ithas a firm scientific underpinning (i.e., we know there are specific receptors that detect it as a distinct flavor).

"el sabor de la carne"...how about that?

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @4:22PM John F. C. Taylor said... The thing about the oreos got me interested. This chef[?] seems to be kind of shallow in her answers to some of the other questions. I get the feeling that she's more full of herself than she would be if she did eat a whole package of the cookies.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @4:32PM Rosario B Martinez said... I am mexican, and i know that there are taste receptors for different flavors: sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami.

Go ask any well versed mexican... bet you'll be very surprised to find out that ignorance isn't endemic (thank God for that).
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @7:09PM Emmaaa said... WHAT'S Umami?
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @8:30PM pnut166 said... 867-5309. Ask for Tommy
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @5:36PM withinonesmind2 said... Well no one can tell us what Umami is. I think that it's not a real dish but just a word they like.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @6:54PM gobo said... Umami is not a dish. Umami is one of the 5 basic flavors your tongue has receptors for. It's a savory, full flavor, like chicken soup or soy sauce.

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @6:02PM Jen said... Yeah, she thinks she is pretty special (in her own mind). She says that she is Mexican and in the same breath calls all Mexicans stupid because they wouldn't know what umami means. Also her comment on vegetarians was really lame. A true chef embraces all people with all different preferences.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @7:04PM Big said... Marcela Valladolid, NEVER heard of her, but I'd look at her naked.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-20-2010 @1:42PM hv'sbuddie said... Okay - I get it - now I know what UMAMI is.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @8:14PM Martian said... A whole package of oreos, huh? It that the one with the 6 cookies, 12 or 36?

Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @8:24PM gobo said... @petticoat junction, aka Martian, aka Ginger Root:
"Wow, you seem kinda... racist." No, you stupid twerp. Marcela Valladolid is Mexican. She should know that many traditional foods in Mexican cuisine -- beans, rice, peppers, etc -- are vegetarian, and that her home country's cuisine has a strong vegetarian tradition. A Mexican chef thinking that her own people go hungry eating her own food is simply ignorant. Do not dare to call me racist.

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @8:47PM Rosie B. said... gobo, you are right on!!! I'm a vegetarian and I am full after my meals! Traditional Mexican food is exactly what you listed.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-19-2010 @8:56PM Jim said... Vegetarianism is an inferior survival trait. Herbivores and carnivores are both inferior (survival-wise) to an omnivore. The survival benefits, as well as the nutrient diversity benefits, are obvious when an omnivor is juxtaposed against either the carnivore or herbivore. I would feel the same way about someone that is purely vegetarian as I would about someone that only eats meat...that they are basically going against millions of years of human (omnivoristic) evolution.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-22-2010 @5:46PM gaby said... WOW are people full of themselves!
She is just stating what she thinks... she's not here to please everybody!
I'm mexican and up to now I had never in my life heard that term... there's not a translation..

but whatever... it is very easy to stand (or sit) behind a computer to judge since you are not doing it in front of people.

I could not have commented but I'm tired of all comments always being negative...
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-23-2010 @3:32PM tina said... Umami is annoying. I'm sure she knows what it is and is just being facetious. You all need to calm down geez.
Reply

Vote upVote downReport

3-23-2010 @3:35PM tina said... Totally agree with you! And I'm Mexican American and I have had umami explained to me and I still think it's an annoying term.
Reply