Chef Silvana on Mexican Cuisine and Surviving the Pandemic

Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza, owner-operator of the nationally recognized Barrio Café in Phoenix, Arizona/Photo: Joanie Simon — Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza/Photo: Joanie Simon

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Don’t miss a BRAND NEW episode of The Women’s Eye podcast with Catherine Anaya as I talk to Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza, an eight-time James Beard semi-finalist and owner of the nationally recognized Barrio Café in Phoenix, Arizona.

“I have an eight-hundred-year legacy of baking and gastronomic excellence. Five hundred of those years through Mexico and almost one hundred in the States. It’s generational from my father and my grandfather. It’s never stopped, and I’m the only one doing it at this point in my family.”

Chef Silvana Esparza's Chiles en Nogada dish, featured in Phoenix Cooks by Christina Barrueta/Photo: Joanie Simon — Chiles en Nogada, a Puebloan dish often served as part of Mexican Independence Day festivities with colors matching the Mexican flag/Photo: Joanie Simon

We talk about how the pandemic had forced a temporary closure of her Barrio Café and whether she believes the restaurant can ultimately survive.

Chef Silvana also shares details about the incurable inflammatory disease she’s been battling, why she refuses to let it set her back and how it has empowered and motivated her to take up hiking several miles a week.

Chef Silvana Esparza at her Barrio Café in Phoenix, AZ/Photo by Mirelle Inglefield, Courtesy Chef Silvana — Silvana outside her Phoenix restaurant/Photo: Mirelle Inglefield

Plus, she’ll share her thoughts on the Arizona food scene, the book she intends to write and what she would like her legacy to be.

Don’t miss this insightful and inspiring conversation on the next episode of The Women’s Eye podcast.

Phoenix Cooks: Recipes from the City's Finest Chefs cookbook by Christina Barrueta which includes a story on TWE podcast interviewee Chef Silvana Esparza — New cookbook by Christina Barrueta celebrating Phoenix’s Finest Chefs and their recipes including Chef Silvana

For more about Chef Silvana, check out:

Website: chefsilvana.com
Facebook: @SilvanaSalcidoEsparza
Twitter: @BARRIOCAFE1
Instagram: @ChefSilvana

Take a look at our Zoom vidcast:

Here’s a post with another James Beard nominee, Elizabeth Blau, co-author of Honey Salt, A Culinary Scrapbook, who is a successful restaurateur in Las Vegas:

TWE 253: Culinary Queen Elizabeth Blau On a (Lobster) Roll with New Savory Scrapbook

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