Quotes from Marcela Valladolid

In Tijuana, we have cuisine from every region of Mexico and cooks from all over cooking in all of the restaurants, so there is a huge influence from sources like the Yucatan, Oaxaca and Puebla.

My boys will not only respect and admire women and see them as their equals, but they will also see them as sources of inspiration and knowledge.

Tijuana is a baby compared to pre-Hispanic cities like Puebla or Oaxaca, the birthplace of mole.

I love my molcajete, which is a Mexican mortar and pestle. There is no comparison in flavor to when I use a processor.

Day of the Dead. Sounds a little spooky doesn't it? It's actually one of the most colorful and joyous of Mexican holidays.

When summer squash is freshly picked, all it needs is a little olive oil, salt, pepper, and maybe a hit of lemon juice.

My decisions are motivated by my life, my values, and what I stand for, not what I can gain financially from it. This has weeded out the opportunities that I don't care about and has brought on a lot of new opportunities that mean everything to me.

All of my dishes kind of have the same thing going on - I'm always going to give you the same things that I grew up with or that my mom used to make. I'm not going to use nitrogen in my tacos.

Growing up, I didn't realize how unique it was to live on the border of the United States and Mexico. It wasn't until I started doing interviews with the press that I actually began to appreciate just how cool it was that I would cross the international border every single day from Tijuana into San Diego to go to school.

Growing up, my mom was a stay-at-home mom. I knew that her entire world revolved around us, and she relished being involved in every school project and every craft.

Growing up, everybody would cross the border, even to just do grocery shopping. A lot of traditional American foods stuck with my parents and became part of my upbringing. This all had to do with the proximity to the border. We were an absolute mix of classic Americana, traditional Mexican, and Baja cuisine.

There's a particular quality that those of us who live on the border share; we can switch from being Mexican to being American in an instant just by scanning our surroundings. Not everybody has this superpower; it takes a very specific kind of upbringing to instill a deep pride in two very different cultures.

I had a lot of female role models around me as a kid, but my aunt Marcela Rodriguez was the strongest. When she was only 26, she opened Artes Culinarias Internacionales, one of the first culinary schools in Baja. She started with six students and built up to 800.

I strongly believe that it's possible to conserve our heritage while making more healthful choices.

I hold both of them with equal amounts of pride. I feel just as strongly and equally Mexican as I do American.

I use my Le Creuset dutch oven for everything you can think of. I even fry eggs in it.

Supermarket cherry tomatoes do serve a purpose, but the flavor is vastly different than those from your own garden. Same for broccoli and snap peas.

We'll do frozen pizzas and then I'll get arugula from the garden and do a fresh salad over the top with shaved Parmesan. Or we'll buy a rotisserie chicken already made, and then we'll make tacos and a fresh salsa and we'll grill some vegetables to accompany it. We definitely try to make it a little bit homemade if it's not completely homemade.

Huitlacoche is typically eaten as a filling for quesadillas or with any tortilla-based food. Also great stuffed in crepes.

The more kids are involved, the more likely they are to eat the food. Getting them involved gets them excited, and kids are much more likely to try something that they were involved in the process of creating because it gives them a sense of accomplishment - kids always love approval.

Most Mexican restaurants serve fake, heavy versions of my home country's cuisine. But real Mexican food is full of brilliant, fresh flavors.

Herdez Salsas have always been a favorite of mine because I love the authentic taste.