A Doctor in the Kitchen

"People go to the gym. I used to go to the kitchen," says Maricel Presilla, author, historian, chef-restaurateur and general ambassador of all cuisines and cultures Latin. She couldn’t stay away from food and cooking while she was Dr. Presilla, teaching medieval history at New York and Rutgers universities.

She initially went for the physical workout that a restaurant kitchen could give her; eventually the kitchen magnet tugged at her wholly. Soon, she gave up academics and opened Zafra, a pan-Latin restaurant in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Her inquiring academic mind and methods didn’t stop however, so Maricel looked into the culinary history of Latin America and Spain. She began to research and write in the area of food. The scholar-turned-chef began to do what she thought she had left behind. "Little did I think I would be writing again," she said.

The muscle-work she sought in kitchens has morphed into the muscle to research food sources, especially the cacao bean and vanilla. She also heads Gran Cacao, a Latin American food marketing company specializing in chocolate research and marketing, and heirloom cocoa bean trade.

Among her books:

• The New Taste of Chocolate: A Cultural and Natural History of Cacao with Recipes (Ten Speed Press, 2001)
• Three illustrated books that explore the indigenous cultures and cuisines of Latin America: Feliz
• Nochebuena, Feliz Navidad: Christmas Feasts of the Hispanic Caribbean; Life Around the Lake; and Mola: Cuna Life, Stories, And Art (Holt, 1995, 1996 and 1996, respectively)

In 2004, Maricel's Latin American cookbook on the cuisines of 20 Latin American countries will be published by W.W. Norton, and Maricel expects to open a second, sister restaurant, Cucharamama, in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 2004.