Welcome to the Reimagining Us Blog!
Discover a world of stories in this space, where we celebrate the richness of culinary heritage and the personal tales that come with it. Our blog features a variety of content, including essays, articles, news reports, photo galleries, and videos, all centered around family recipes, dining table stories, and traditional dishes. Your experiences and insights are a vital part of this journey. Feel free to contribute – whether it's a comment on a unique ethnic restaurant, a reflection on a specific article, photos of a cultural celebration, or a video of you preparing a special dish.
Do you want to contribute to the Blog? We welcome your stories! Please send us an email with a brief description of your story.
Meet the Chef: Conversations at Contento
Contento is the melodic Spanish word for happy and the name of Peruvian chef Oscar Lorenzzi’s restaurant. Located in Spanish Harlem, Contento is renowned for its sophisticated cuisine, inspired bar, and accessible design. These characteristics made Contento an elegant choice for Chris Yong-García and Marguerita Dolatly as the place to relaunch Chris’s Reimagining Us project on October 1st. Reimagining Us is an online project that wants to give us all the chance to share stories and memories about our family origins, using food as a spark for conversation. And that was precisely what twelve attendees eager for new experiences shared on that sunny Sunday at Contento: food for the soul, family stories, and warm and congenial conversations.
Salir a comer
No están muy lejos en el pasado los inviernos y veranos prepandémicos, cuando el frío helado de la esquina o el calor húmedo de la calle se acababan al entrar al bar, y te encontrabas con lxs amigxs a celebrar tal vez un cumpleaños o alguna victoria deseada. Pienso en estos dos años enteros de pandemia, en las risas y conversaciones eternas, y en la vida que dejamos en nuestros bares, restaurantes y cafés latinos de Nueva York.
Doña América
“This recipe reminds me of my grandmother's cooking… It’s filled with scents and it’s very nostalgic, but it’s not that well known because it comes from northern Mexico from Nuevo León to be more accurate; this region’s cuisine is not as well known as that from other parts of the country.”
Coconut Risotto
“I don’t know how I learned to cook, but I do! My grandmother was a Venetian; she arrived in Venezuela when she was 44 with her husband and kids. My dad was born in Italy and came to Venezuela at age 14; at home we always used to eat traditional Venetian food ... when my grandfather died, my grandmother stopped cooking everyday, and this inspired me to start cooking myself...”
Home is…
“When Latin Lover went out on the streets of New York in search of the best Dominican restaurant, we soon realized the best dishes didn’t come with a maître d’. You have to know people. You need connections. If you want unparalleled Dominican food, go home. Home is where those recipes—the ones that have been passed from generation to generation—continue to live on. The place where all the magic happens has a table reserved only for the most privileged.”