We Are La Cocina: Recipes in Pursuit of the American Dream
SynopsisPlot
With 100+ recipes that span the globe from the United States, Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Senegal, Vietnam, and many more: Powerful stories. Beautifully evocative visuals. More than 100 recipes for all occasions, from many cultures. Here, in La Cocina's first cookbook, more than 50 successful La Cocina entrepreneurs share their inspiring narratives—and their delicious recipes! This is the book for cooks who love great global recipes and support organizations that make a big difference. More than 150 photographs from award-winning photographer Eric Wolfinger capture the spirit of the people, the mouthwatering food, and the diversity of the immigrant experience. La Cocina is an incubator kitchen that provides affordable commercial kitchen space, industry-specific technical assistance, and access to market opportunities to women of color and immigrant communities.
Story
About this book
La Cocina is a kitchen incubator based in San Francisco that offers affordable commercial cooking space, business guidance, and market access to immigrant women and women of color looking to build food businesses. This book, co-authored by Caleb Zigas and Leticia Landa, collects recipes and personal stories from more than fifty entrepreneurs who have passed through the program. The dishes draw from a wide geographic range, including Mexico, Japan, Brazil, Senegal, Vietnam, and other countries, reflecting the backgrounds of the cooks who developed them.
The collection contains over one hundred recipes suited to different occasions and skill levels. Alongside the food, each contributor shares a narrative about starting a business, adapting to a new country, and working within a supportive community kitchen. Photographer Eric Wolfinger, described in the record as award-winning, provides more than 150 images of the people and their dishes.
The book is organized around the idea that food entrepreneurship can be a practical path toward economic stability for communities that often face barriers to entry in the restaurant industry. Rather than presenting a single cuisine, it maps a network of traditions carried into one city by cooks from many different starting points.
