Le Creuset is excited to announce a new series of conversations with expert chefs, culinarians, style mavens, designers, artists and more. Each quarter we will highlight someone that is bringing our legendary products and iconic colors to life, whether that be through their food, artistic vision or design. As our Guest Editor, look for engaging talks, delicious recipes, tips and techniques from these amazingly talented people that are truly “Cooking in Color”.
This year, we are celebrating the expressive nature of people everywhere with a series of organically influenced shades. As this relates to food and cooking, we’re exploring fresh novel flavors with food that nourishes your soul, and an updated definition of what comfort food means to each of us. So it’s fitting that we have partnered with Chef Claudette Zepeda of Alila Marea Beach Resort in Encinitas, California to kick off our Guest Editor series. Her vibrant personality and global-inspired food naturally blends with our spring color palette, and especially with our new color Agave.
We stepped into the kitchen with Chef Claudette for a warmhearted conversation about her connection to food and cooking, and where she finds inspiration.
Q & A with Guest Editor Chef Claudette
Q: How would you describe your culinary style or way of cooking?
A: “Ugly delicious was something I called it before David came out with the show so then I changed it to Grandma Chic. About 5 years ago I decided to stop trying to hide my food under garnishes and leaned in on the flavors that bring me the comfort of my fond memories throughout my life.”
Q: What does comfort food mean to you?
A: “They say you know something is art when it makes you feel something, to me comfort food is art, it should make you feel a certain kind of way. You don’t need to have a connection to the exact dish in particular, flavors to me are universal. The best compliment I can get is people telling me a dish, that has roots in my Mexican heritage reminds them of something they ate from their grandmother and they are not Mexican.”
"Cooking in color to me means cooking with nature."
Chef Claudette Zepeda
Alila Marea Beach Resort
Q: What's your favorite food memory?
A: “I have so many! As a child was in Santiago Ixcuintla, Nayarit where the Zepeda’s started. In the 80/90’s we used to drive from Tijuana to Guadalajara in our “Bat Mobile” a beat up 1974 Lincoln Continental with my brothers and I crammed in the back seat with all of our belongings. Stopping at every beach town on the way down and the last detour was stopping to see my great uncle Juan in Nayarit. I remember walking up to the stand that had a billowing cloud of smoke coming off the grill, the man was doing a dance with the Zarandeado cages, flipping the butterflied fish just so. The flames were crazy and yet not one piece was burned. The smells are seared in my mind, the fat of the mayo/adobo marinade, the lime juice hitting me in the eye as my mom made me a taco with extra salsa Huichol.”
Q: How did you get into cooking?
A: “As the only daughter in a very old school Mexican household I started cooking as soon as I could reach the stove, I was tasked with helping my mom and making sure all of my brothers were fed. I remember the satisfaction I felt watching my brothers eat the food I would make for them. Many times it was just quesadillas if I’m going to be completely honest, but that is the seed that gets planted for many chef’s. The joy we feel when others are enjoying themselves at our tables. However, I do feel that growing up from the age of 3 months-16 yrs. old I spent half of my year in Guadalajara and the majority of those days were spent being my Tía Lorenza’s shadow in her restaurant. A single mother of 6 started her pozole stand with a few tables and two menu items, pozole and tostadas de pozole. By the time I was born she has a full-service restaurant. I learned so much from that time, things that I hadn’t thought impacted me as a chef. She would hand me a knife and a stool and I would help prep the garnishes for the pozole, work the dining room with her saying hi to everyone, cut the limes, bag the agua frescas. I didn’t realize my time in the restaurant was my baptism into the hospitality industry.”
Q: Who/what inspires your food and cooking?
A: “History, humanity and its complexity/messiness. I am so inspired by people, music and art. It wasn’t until I started to travel around the world that I started seeing all of the similarities between my culture and others. The smells and sounds of the markets, the stories I can coach out of the market vendors when I sit with them and look them in the eyes. I can write several menu’s after an inspiring market run to the Souk in Marrakech.”
Q: What does cooking in color mean to you?
A: “This coming from a woman with green hair and covered in colorful tattoos. Cooking in color to me means cooking with nature. I am merely an ingredient facilitator; mother nature is the artist. I tell my cooks to taste raw vegetables that to many people won’t be able to describe the flavor but to me I teach them to add “tastes green” to their vocabulary. A tempered ripe strawberry taste like the brightest fuchsia warmed by the sun. My house growing up was pink haha, Viva Mexico.”
Q: Talk about your connection to nature and sustainability.
A: “My connection to earth and my drive to do my part in my little corner of the world came after I spent time in Puebla with an indigenous family at the base of Popocatépetl. Alberto, a fifth generation tlachiquero (pulque producer) taught me the Aztec law of asking permission to take from any living thing. He had his sacred prayer with the agave before cutting into the heart to begin the bleeding process that produces the agua miel for pulque. He said, “all living things must be asked for permission to take from them or they will not provide and eventually the plant will kill itself”. It impacted the way I do everything, my human relationships too. Seeing the people in my life and making sure all relationships were reciprocal. If we treat the ground like it owes us something and it “should” bear fruit we are poisoning our own land. I want to teach anyone that comes into my circle to always say thanks to anything that gives you nourishment. Dirt therapy for me is my church. I try to walk/touch dirt on my hands and feet at least once a day to remember we all own it to future generations to take care of our land. I have been known to dig through trash cans if I see irresponsible waste. If the technology and the products are out there to live a more sustainable life it is my job to incorporate that into my life/work.”
Q: What does authenticity or being authentic mean to you?
A: “As a knuckle head teenager I came up with a clever senior quote (I think it came from a WWE heel) “Love me or hate me, you’ll never forget me”.
All I can be is me, for good or bad. I refuse to be less than 100% me at all times, that means checking in with myself daily to make sure I am communicating what my boundaries are. It means not apologizing for my emotions and extra-ness, ever. I owe it to my ancestors to live as fully me as I can and showing up as authentic as I can be every single day. Learning tact comes with age but I have learned that living an authentically me existence helps me eliminate people from my life that are not loving to me.”
