Zarela Martínez Biography
Zarela Martínez is a cookbook author and restaurateur living in New York City and is a member of the Mexican Cultural Institute of New York’s board of directors.
How old is Zarela Martínez? – Age
She was born in Agua Prieta, Sonora, Mexico. Her date of birth is not known.
Zarela Martínez Family
Her mother, Aida Gabilondo, who is also a cookbook author, taught her how to cook. she is related to Francisco Gabilondo Soler, the former Mexican composer, and performer of children’s songs.
Zarela Martínez Husband
From 2003 until his death in 2010, she was the partner of pornographic filmmaker and performer Jamie Gillis. Zarela currently resides in New York City. Her son, Aarón Sánchez, is a co-star on the television shows Chopped, Heat Seekers, and MasterChef season 7, as well as the chef/owner of Johnny Sanchez in New Orleans, Louisiana. Rodrigo, her son, is a lawyer. Zarela has two grandchildren and one granddaughter.
Zarela Martínez Net Worth
She has an estimated net worth of $2 Million.
Zarela Martínez Podcast
In 2020, she debuted a podcast on Heritage Radio Network called Cooking in Mexican from A to Z. The show, which she co-hosts with her son, Chef Aarón Sánchez, explores Mexican gastronomy, flavors, and history via entertaining talks with their guests.
Zarela Martínez Accident
From 2003 until his death in 2010, she was the partner of pornographic filmmaker and performer Jamie Gillis.
Zarela Martínez Restaurants
Through her restaurants and publications, Martnez has been crucial in teaching Americans to true Mexican cuisine. In New York City, she has organized culinary festivals and given cooking courses, demonstrations, and lectures on Mexican cuisine and culture.
Chef Paul Prudhomme became Martnez’ mentor after discovering her in a New Orleans cooking class, and Martnez established her catering firm El Paso about 1979. Martnez created Zarela, a Mexican restaurant in New York City that is acknowledged as a pioneer of regional Mexican food. The restaurant closed in 2011, citing mounting expenses and financial problems caused by the escalating economic crisis.
Zarela Martínez Cookbook
Martnez has been on various television shows, and her 2001 cookbook Zarela’s Veracruz was published to accompany the 2001 PBS series Zarela! La Cocina Veracruzana. The US State Department’s online journal E-Journal USA: US Society & Values named her one of seven people who helped reinvent the American culinary landscape since the final half of the twentieth century in 2004. She was working on a book about naturally light Mexican cooking as of March 2017.
Zarela Martínez Career
From 2004 to 2007, Walmart shops across the country carried the Zarela Casa brand of soft goods (tablecloths, place mats, napkins, shower curtains, towels, and other bath products, cushions) inspired by traditional Mexican textile designs.
She appeared in the 2016 film Moronga, where she sang and acted. Martnez released her debut album as a vocalist, Sad Songs from a Happy Heart, in 2017. In 2021, she will share her inspirational “building blocks” for living well with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and for healthy and tasty food in “A Taste for Life with Zarela.”