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Pull up a seat at our table, where badass women from all walks of life—fashion, beauty, design, music, philanthropy, art, and more—come together to share honest stories, serve truths, and dig into the realities of modern womanhood.
Johanna Almstead:
Hello everyone. I am menu planning for my next guest and it's a little scary because she's definitely way better at this than I am. She's a chef and she's a hostess and she's a cookbook author and she's so many things and a real expert in the food space so I'm a little intimidated, but I think I'm just going to lean in. I'm going to lean into the things I know I can do well and I'm going to lean into some simple classics that I think are kind of crowd pleasers, so we'll see.
First I'm going to have beautiful chilled champagne. She's super celebratory and she loves an occasion so I think it'll be lovely to have. I'm going to have a bottle of Pierre Peters, which is one of my favorite champagnes. It's really, really nice. I'm going to have that open. I'm going to do some little new potatoes. So little tiny baby, new potatoes. You just boil them and then you can crisp them up a little bit if you want, put them under the broiler and then you cut them in half or cut them in half first and then put them under the broiler. Then you put a little dollop of creme fresh and a big dollop of caviar. So I'm going to start with that. And I'm also going to do some sort of traditional French gruyere, which are these little warm cheese puffs. They're just delicious. You can do them with a little bit of smoked paprika. They're kind of salty and warm and just delicious, which I think would be really nice.
Sort of proper hors d'oeuvres. I don't always do proper hors d'oeuvres, but I feel like for tonight I'm going to do proper hors d'oeuvres. I'm also going to do a leek and gr tart.
So I'm going to have a little beautiful, simple, kind of rustic leak and gruyere tart that we can slice sort of like between our little proper hors d'oeuvres and then between that and the entree kind of in lieu of a salad. I'm going to do the tart instead. And with that, I'm going to open up a beautiful like a white burgundy, something delicious, a white burgundy. I'm going to do one of my favorite go to recipes that I feel like is gorgeous and delicious. It's cod with capers and butter and lemon. It's just delicious sort of roasted cod or baked, I guess, cod. I'm going to do that with a homemade rice pilaf and a side of haricots verts, which I'm going to do a little bit of toasted slivered almonds, a little garlic and oil with that. Just really simple but beautiful and springy feeling and delicious.
And I think for dessert I might get a little ambitious or I might go to the bakery, but I'm feeling like a strawberry mille-feuille, which is like the layers of pastry and cream and fresh strawberries. I just had the most delicious strawberries this morning for breakfast, and it made me think that I wanted to make one of those. So we'll try that. I think for music we're going to go a little like French jazz and Bossa Nova, a little Serge Gainesbourg, a little Bill Evans, maybe a little Stan Getz and Joao Giberto, little Nina Simone, maybe a little Edith Piaf in there. Just like groovy, sensual, lovely, relaxed dinner.
My next guest is so lovely. She's so wildly creative. She is so much fun and has such a huge heart and a beautiful eye and I really can't wait for you to get to know her, so let's dig in.
Hello everyone and welcome to Eat My Words. Today is going to be so fun. My guest today is an award-winning creative director, chef, and food stylist. She has collaborated with chefs, fashion houses, heritage brands, and cultural institutions like The White House and the New York Times. She truly lives at the intersection of food, fashion, art, and culture, which is exactly where I like to live too, which is why this is so fun. Her food styling has been featured in Vogue, The New York Times, Food and Wine, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, Wine Spectator, O Magazine, In Style, and many, many, many, many, many more. She is the published author of three recipe books and has worked on more than 20 cookbooks. She even got to work on First Lady Michelle Obama's American Grown Project. She is a film buff. She is an avid art collector. She is a Colombiana, a New Yorker, a lover of beauty, and the red lipstick wearing author of her latest delight for the senses, Revel: A Maximalist's Guide to Having People Over.
Mariana Velazquez, welcome to Eat My Words.
Mariana Velasquez:
Thank you so much. This is such a delight.
Johanna Almstead:
I know you are exhausted. You are on the tail end of a crazy whirlwind book tour. You've had a big launch. So thank you so much for taking the time to be with me today. I know that it has been an intense couple of several weeks, I guess, right?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
So, thank you.
Mariana Velasquez:
No, thank you. It has been quite intense, but it also has been exhilarating and I have received so much that I didn't expect.
Johanna Almstead:
Like what? Tell me.
Mariana Velasquez:
Well, just when you're signing books, people come up to you and sometimes they just give you their name on a Post-it, but sometimes they tell you their story right away. When you're going to dedicate a book to someone or sign a book in their name, there's a moment that opens up and people tend to share deeply. And so it's incredibly rewarding. It's also kind of like a big responsibility and I leave those moments really charged positively. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, your dedication in your book actually made me cry. It just really hit me. So if you don't mind, I'm going to read it to our audience. It says, "Fierce women have stood beside me, have lifted and challenged me. Bold beings who have weathered storms have shared my tables. Unruly is meaningful. Spills are splendid. This book would not be without your heated hearts on cushioned seats." Oh, it makes me well up. It really makes me well up. First of all, it's so beautifully written.
Mariana Velasquez:
Thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
But it really speaks to the alchemy that happens when humans, and I think in particular women, gather around a table and eat and drink and listen and love one another. It really does.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. There's no doubt. There's no doubt. It's such a powerful way to connect, to interact, that communion that happens around the table. It's meaningful.
Johanna Almstead:
I'd say sacred sometimes, right? Sacred.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
So I want to talk about your career, but I also... and your book obviously, but I want to go backwards a little bit and talk about where your journey began because I always find it so interesting to ask people this because everybody starts at a different place in their life, but where would you say your journey began?
Mariana Velasquez:
I think it began when I moved from Bogota to New York when I was 17. It was meant to be a gap year to better my English, to take a break between high school and college to just sort of see the world. I had this idea of having a career in food that my parents didn't think it was serious. They saw that it was more something that would pass. And it turned out that I arrived in New York and back then you were able to go to major restaurants and knock on the kitchen door and get a stage for two or three days.
Johanna Almstead:
So for people who don't know what a stage is, let me just back up. A stage is like a mini little internship. You get to be in a kitchen under the watchful eye and training of usually the executive chef or the chef to cuisine at least who will teach you what goes on in that kitchen. And that's like a very big important part for chefs to get to understand how to run particularly like a Michelin star restaurant or something like that. Okay. So you could knock on the door and you could get one of these gigs for a few days at a time?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah, but it was also unpaid. Back then it was like come in and peel bushels of carrots. It was very much about learning repetition, learning the skills, watching how it operated and the world opened up for me and I realized I did want a career food and I was serious about it. So that's where it all began when I said I'm not going back.
Johanna Almstead:
So what did you do next once you decided that? So
Mariana Velasquez:
Then my mother came to pick me up.
Johanna Almstead:
She's like, "Nice try, kiddo."
Mariana Velasquez:
"Oh, really? Yeah, no." But we went to lunch with one of her best friends who lives in Caramel in California and we were starting to fight at the table and her friend said, "Listen, if college begins in September," this was June, "come to my house, stay with us. We have friends who have restaurants in the West Coast and you'll do stages there and you'll get to experience California cuisine." We're talking 1999. It was also kind of like the beginning of farm to table without even being called farm to table. It was California cuisine was exploding.
Johanna Almstead:
Alice Waters.
Mariana Velasquez:
Exactly.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Okay.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. It was Alice Waters. It was Oliveto. It was Zuni Cafe was Fleur de Lys. I mean, it was a moment that was very important in California for food, not that it continues to be, but then there were pioneers in so many of the movements that we know now. And so I went there and my friend, my mom's friend, who's now a dear friend, took me to the Post Ranch, which is this beautiful hotel in Big Sur. Dreamy.
Johanna Almstead:
I had literally one of the most magical dining experience I've ever had in my life there.
Mariana Velasquez:
I mean, it's just like that space that plays in the world.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes. So for people who don't know, it's built into the rocks of Big Sur, literally hanging off the edge over the ocean, over the Pacific Ocean. It is extraordinary architecturally and then culinarily. Okay. So she took you to the Post Ranch Inn.
Mariana Velasquez:
And she introduced me to the owners and they said, "Yeah, you should come and do a three-day stage." Cut to a year later.
Johanna Almstead:
You never left?
Mariana Velasquez:
I never left. I never left. I moved into staff housing. I mean, I don't really remember how it all happened, but of course I couldn't keep staying at my mom's friends because it was supposed to be a couple months visit. And so my parents were like, "You have to come back." And I said, "Well, no, this is really my calling and I'm going to pursue it." And I think for many years when they were like, "Well, then you're on your own."
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, so they cut you off?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Mariana Velasquez:
For many years, I felt that that was such an abandonment, right? Yeah, but I was 18, their daughter. But then later I realized it was the biggest gift they could have given me.
Johanna Almstead:
Really?
Mariana Velasquez:
Well, yes, because they gave me this freedom and they believed in me enough so that they're like-
Johanna Almstead:
You're going to figure this out. You're going to figure it out.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Did you think of it as belief in you at the time?
Mariana Velasquez:
No.
Johanna Almstead:
Or did it feel like betrayal at the time?
Mariana Velasquez:
At the time I was like, they totally abandoned me. They don't care. But in retrospect, it was the biggest gift. Imagine if they had forced me to go back or I don't know, just they knew I would figure it out and I did. And I also was taken care of by so many people around me, everyone in the restaurant, the head chef, the chef of cuisine, the pastry chef. They're dear friends to this day and they really took care of me. They taught me everything they knew. They took me under their wing. The owners of the restaurant also, Tony and Trish Perrault, who are this incredible couple.
So along the way in my career, I have been, not to sound cheesy, but I've been blessed by having people around me always containing me, always helping. And so I feel that in a way that's why I'm a host because it's my way to embrace others in that sense.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that. It's so interesting too when you get to a point, and I was just talking to someone the other day about a former colleague of mine that I had and I realized that every job I ever got in my career literally started with her. It was like her who recommended me to somebody else who started... And you just look back and you think there's got these angels in your life who you don't even know the impact they're having in the moment, right?
Mariana Velasquez:
Right.
Johanna Almstead:
It's so cool. Okay. So how long did you stay at Post Ranch Inn?
Mariana Velasquez:
For about a year and a half and then I went to cooking school in Vermont because it was like, okay, then college needs to happen and cooking school was part of what was important to me. And so I went to cooking school and then I came back to New York where I had a couple internships and other jobs in the world of food and I became a food stylist kind of by default, just because I was in the magazine world, working at the recipe testing kitchen of Savor, of Eating Well. And I found that to make a career choice, I would either have to go back to school to study English so that I could become a food editor or continue in the world of food, but I didn't know how. And then food styling became this perfect career that combined everything I love, art, design, beauty, cooking, research. It was all parts. So I went out on my own.
Johanna Almstead:
And it's like one of those jobs I feel like that I certainly, I don't think knew even existed until I was in my 30s for sure. I didn't know that there were food stylists. I never thought about it. But I love when you find a job that is so suited to you and to your skills. Did you ever want to work... After your experience at Post Ranch Inn, which I imagine is like hard to match, right? Did you want to work in a restaurant? Did you want to be a chef in a restaurant? Because we've had other, like Lori Woolever talks about how she realized that actually after going to cooking school, she was like terrified of working in a restaurant kitchen. She loved food and she loved chefs and she loved the business, but she was sort of terrified of actually being in a restaurant kitchen because of the pressure.
Mariana Velasquez:
For sure the Post Ranch was a dream scenario. No kitchen was run like that. It was a new menu every day. We had an incredible garden. They would send me to cut flowers from the owner's patch of Dahlias. It was just so, so dreamy and incredible. And everybody was kind and super hardworking and so much of what I know I learned there even now. But then I worked at Prune, which is funny you mentioned Lori, because that era of the early 2000s of the New York scene, reading her book reminded me of that time for me at Prune very much. The characters, the people, the restaurants, it was... Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Such a time of crazy-
Mariana Velasquez:
Such a time.
Johanna Almstead:
And that book, I mean, what is it called? Blood, Bones-
Mariana Velasquez:
and Butter. Gabrielle Hamilton.
Johanna Almstead:
... and Butter, yes.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh man, that book is not easy to read. I mean, it's intense.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
So that was a bit of a whiplash, I imagine, from Post Ranch Inn.
Mariana Velasquez:
Different.
Johanna Almstead:
Different.
Mariana Velasquez:
Very different. Also in the middle of the city, and a tiny restaurant that not fine dining, but also a way of cooking that was and continues to be just delicious in its authenticity. Sophistication without pretension. The Post Ranch, everything, not everything, but a lot of it was with tweezers and you're super stylized. Gabrielle's food was like the perfect roast chicken with jous and toast or Triscuits with sardines and mustard. Deliciousness in a way that makes me salivate. But it was also a very different way of running a business, running a kitchen, running a stuff. And it was 2001, 2002 New York City, which was a whole different animal too.
Johanna Almstead:
I was working on the front of the house in a few places at that time.
Mariana Velasquez:
So, you know.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. It was intense. It was really intense.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
But also magical. It was also like the time of such creativity I think and individuality. Now I feel like there's a lot of restaurants that all feel the same, but back then so many of those restaurants like Prune and Balthazar and all these places that were popping up, Blue Ribbon, felt just like something so new. Okay. So you worked at Prune, you started food styling and that's really where you were like hitting your stride. You were like, "Okay, the food styling thing feels like everything that I'm good at and everything I want to do."
Mariana Velasquez:
Exactly. And it was because of what I told you earlier of making this decision of how to lead my life and have a career in food, my hyper focus has always been my career. On one hand, I needed to prove it to others, but-
Johanna Almstead:
Of course.
Mariana Velasquez:
... I needed to prove it to myself. Like, I really need to make this happen and I need to do it exceptionally well. And when I found food styling, that food styling was a thing and actually a full-time career, I started assisting people and I assisted wonderful stylists for three years and then I went out on my own and what that meant was, well, you assisted people, you would slowly build your portfolio with photographers assistance, with other people who were also looking to build a body of work. And so when I went out on my own, it was 2008 and that crisis, that financial crisis where a lot of the magazines folded. So all that pool of people that were on staff at the magazines and were super experienced at Gourmet, at Domino, all of a sudden were also in the freelance pool.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, gosh.
Mariana Velasquez:
How do you even? But-
Johanna Almstead:
What'd you do?
Mariana Velasquez:
I kept going.
Johanna Almstead:
You kept going. Yeah. That's what you're going to do, right?
Mariana Velasquez:
That's what you do.
Johanna Almstead:
You just keep going.
Mariana Velasquez:
I remember I signed on pretty early on when I decided to go out on my own. I ended up meeting this agent through this guy who I dated for one second. I think I met him to meet my agent who represented me for a second.
Johanna Almstead:
Maybe another angel in your life and you didn't know it.
Mariana Velasquez:
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I remember one day I was like, "Mason, there's no work." And he's like, "Mariana, do you want to become something else? Because that's also an option. You can do something else." And I said, "Absolutely not." He's like, "Okay, well then hang on. This is going to turn around." He was right.
Johanna Almstead:
So I want to go back a little bit because I think it must... I'm wondering how much you were in touch with this part, especially at the time when you said no to your parents about going back. Did you always know that you had a creative spirit? Did you feel like a creative person growing up? Did you feel like that was something that was fostered in you? Clearly it doesn't sound like that was something that was fostered as far as a career was for you. Did that resonate with you at all? And if not, when did you finally realize it?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah, it didn't because I thought that creativity was drawing well, like being really good at art class, which in my school I had friends who were incredible artists, right? They could draw beautifully and they had that painterly skill, but I have friends that were very academic, really smart in math, in science. And I was in this in between where I loved philosophy, I loved history, I loved Spanish, but I was like, "That's not artistic or creative. That's just humanities." That's how I felt.
Johanna Almstead:
Right.
Mariana Velasquez:
But I would say maybe 10 years into my career of styling really.
Johanna Almstead:
Wow. It took you 10 years of actually doing the career to make you feel like you were actually creative.
Mariana Velasquez:
Perceiving myself as that.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. No, I get that. I get that a lot. I really understand that because I think that there are some people who, and usually they are the people, you're right, with sort of the fine arts skills that are considered creative and consider themselves creative. But there's this whole other stratosphere of people who are creative or even creatives as we call them that don't even know that they are until they are doing it, right?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I think that's really cool. I think it's just something I always like to... I have two daughters and so I'm always trying to make sure that they don't pigeonhole themselves one way or another, like that they're not one thing or that they're not something, right? My one daughter will be like, "Well, I'm not artistic." I'm like, "Maybe you are. You might not be able to paint, but you can arrange books on a bookshelf in a beautiful way." So I think it is interesting of what the definition of creativity and your curiosity and history and philosophy and that was also fueling that creative brain just wasn't as tactile. Yeah. I think that's interesting.
Mariana Velasquez:
Right.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. So you were food styling and then what happens next?
Mariana Velasquez:
So food styling, main focus, bread and butter, what I did for work-
Johanna Almstead:
[inaudible 00:22:04].
Mariana Velasquez:
... essentially.
Johanna Almstead:
That's your career.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yes. And there was one pivoting moment I was working back to back on shoots, super tired, totally drained. Also, for those who don't know, when you're a food stylist a lot of the time, you're preparing other people's food, right? You're working with cookbook authors and you're cooking their food and making it look like their food. Beautiful prepared.
Johanna Almstead:
Other people's recipes. Right. Yes, yes, yes.
Mariana Velasquez:
Right. Other people's recipes or advertising where it's like zero creative input. The drop of ketchup has to be the drop of ketchup in the position where-
Johanna Almstead:
Right. Make that cheese on that burger melt like [inaudible 00:22:37].
Mariana Velasquez:
Exactly.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay, got you.
Mariana Velasquez:
Exactly. So I was on an airplane flying back to Columbia for a wedding and I picked up a copy of The New Yorker and I read an article titled How the Architect Became A Diamond or something like that, I'm paraphrasing. And it was a story of how Luis Barragan, the now very well known prolific Mexican architect, had passed away in the '80s and this American artist, Jill Magid, convinced his family to exhume his body to turn his ashes into a diamond to propose. No, I mean, it's a whole fascinating story about passion and creativity and determination and color and eccentricity and everything in between. But there was this one line in the article written by Alice Gregory that said that Luis Barragan had entirely pink meals prepared for him.
Johanna Almstead:
Entirely pink?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. And I thought, okay, Luis Barragan was an exquisite man, impeccably dressed, someone who would cancel lunch in the garden if the light wasn't right. What did that look like? What were those lunches? What was it? And so I was fixated and I started preparing these menus, re-imagining and thinking what they could have been or what they could have looked like. And then that became a photo series that I did with this brilliant photographer, Beth Calton. And then I was invited to Hong Kong to teach this creative workshop around creativity, food, and color.
Johanna Almstead:
Wait, so the series that you did, you did about pink food?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
And you did it for a magazine or something or where was it? You just shot it yourself-
Mariana Velasquez:
We didn't [inaudible 00:24:26]. Yeah, we shot it-
Johanna Almstead:
... and you published it yourself or something. Okay.
Mariana Velasquez:
Exactly. And it became a promo, like a way to promote our work. And then somebody picked it up and they're like, "Wait, don't you want to come to Asia? We have all of these partnerships with hotels. We can organize and we can just have you teach this."
Johanna Almstead:
From this one project.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. So it opened-
Johanna Almstead:
Ugh, love that.
Mariana Velasquez:
... up a whole universe. I went to Singapore, I went to Manila in the Philippines, went to Hong Kong, Macau. I mean, this one phrase in this magazine changed my destiny.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love this so much though. I love this so much. Okay, because of two reasons. I love it because it goes back to curiosity, right? That you took the time to read the magazine in the first place because I feel like so much of life right now, especially the pace at which we are living, the pace at which information is being fed to us through an algorithm on our phones, to remain curious of the world that's outside of our phones, I think is huge.
Mariana Velasquez:
Huge.
Johanna Almstead:
And also this idea of that there's inspiration anywhere and just doing the thing. So much of what we talk about on this podcast is there's so many people who are in this certain times of their life or they're transitioning or they want to be doing something else and they are too afraid to start or they're too afraid to try. And so I love this idea that you took this little itty bitty spark of inspiration and lived it out, right? You were like, you put it into action and you did it and you made something out of it and that that changed your career.
Mariana Velasquez:
It did. It did. It opened up-
Johanna Almstead:
So bonkers. I love it so much.
Mariana Velasquez:
... a whole new world, a whole new world aside from styling. So then I started to get hired to design dinners, to design experiences, to do consulting for hotels, just because of this one thing and also because I thought it was just possible. It was just kind of like-
Johanna Almstead:
You didn't second guess it?
Mariana Velasquez:
No. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love that so much.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. So you're traveling the world, you're designing experiences, you're designing meals, you're designing events, tables, all these things.
Mariana Velasquez:
All these things and also styling, right? In parallel, I kept doing my work and having different projects and-
Johanna Almstead:
So you kind of went from being a stylist to more of a creative consultant/designer.
Mariana Velasquez:
Right. Yeah, exactly.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Mariana Velasquez:
And then one day I was sitting with a photographer who's a good friend and a client who's a great author and we're sitting at a bar in Brooklyn having a drink and the author, Liz Moody, she was like, "I don't understand why you haven't written a Colombian cookbook." And she said that and I was like, "I haven't been ready. I don't know."
Johanna Almstead:
Had it never occurred to you to write a cookbook?
Mariana Velasquez:
No, especially not a Colombian cookbook.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love Colombian food.
Mariana Velasquez:
I did not think I was... No, I mean, it hadn't occurred to me. And she said that-
Johanna Almstead:
And she said that and that was like a light bulb. You were like, "Oh, what am I doing? How have I not done this?"
Mariana Velasquez:
I mean, not only was it a light bulb, but in her brilliance, she said, "If you are going to do this," because right then I was like, "I haven't been ready." I think, oh my God, yes, I need to do this. She said, "If you give me a date, when will you have a proposal ready?" And this was right about this time of the year. It was like early May and I said, "I'll have a proposal already in a month." She took out her phone, put her in her calendar and she said, "If in a month you do that, I'll introduce you to my literary agent."
Johanna Almstead:
I love it.
Mariana Velasquez:
And I did and she did and that's who my agent is now for my first and my second book. So I mean, if that isn't... I don't even know what it is, it's honestly... I have so much to thank her for because she held me accountable. She made a promise that she kept, she was generous, but she also showed me something that was already in me. I went home and I wrote... The book was inside as we say in Spanish, between my chest and my back, [Spanish 00:28:32]. It was in me. I wrote and wrote and wrote. I made chapters, I made recipe lists and that book is pretty similar to that initial list.
Johanna Almstead:
I love also that you just said yes though, right? Because you could have said no. You could have been like, "I'm still not ready. I don't know. No, I don't want to put you out. No, no, no. I don't want to..." You didn't. You said yes and you did it. You did the thing.
Mariana Velasquez:
Mm-hmm. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love that.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
And what was that experience like publishing your first book?
Mariana Velasquez:
It was amazing. It's such a specific process. First, I wrote a proposal, but then I also photographed, I had my friend come and help me photograph the book because I'm such a visual person.
Johanna Almstead:
Like before you got the book deal?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. I had somebody-
Johanna Almstead:
You came with-
Mariana Velasquez:
... who did a test. A day test.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. Because I'm so visual and that's part of my language and that's part of what this proposal was about. And so my proposal was very visual and colorful and the whole thing. And essentially because I was our first time author, essentially I wrote the book. I had several sample chapters, had photos, I had a big introduction, I had chapter introductions. So when I ended up signing and selling the project to the publisher, I had very little to finish.
Johanna Almstead:
That's amazing.
Mariana Velasquez:
And that was amazing. And then it was the photography, which happened in April 2020. We were scheduled to go to Colombia to photograph the book and then the world happened and Colombia closes borders for about eight months. I mean, we couldn't really go not early on, not later that year. We had to shoot Colombiana in Brooklyn.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, my God.
Mariana Velasquez:
It's quite amazing how Gentan hires these beautiful photographers. They just brought the Andes to Williamsburg, honestly. The light is magical. So I published in 2021 when things were still pretty closed off. The publisher said no in person events. And in the beginning, it was a huge bummer because I was looking forward to a book tour. But then I found the space digitally at the time when people were on Zoom and I had great access and great captive audience who had nothing else to do.
Johanna Almstead:
I was going to say, it might've been actually perfect timing because so many people were getting into cooking and entertaining in their own little ways and trying to make mundane days feel special because they'd had so many mundane days. I mean, I was throwing parties that I would've thrown for 500 people. I was throwing for six people in my house just because I'm like, "Everyone's wearing a dress and we're going to drink champagne." Yeah. So in some ways, maybe you're right, your audience was so ready for it probably.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. So it was perfect. And so I had a book tour, a digital book tour and I threw a few parties at friends' houses and it was magical. It was also an interesting way to connect with people, with readers who would write. Even now people still write like, "I'm married to a Colombian and we live in Arkansas and I make her the lentils," and things like that that are those messages that make it all worth it.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that. So we share a mutual friend who is also Colombian and the first time I ever went to Colombia with her, I couldn't believe the breakfast spreads that would happen every morning. The arepas and all the different breads and all the different cheeses and all the fresh fruit juices. I would literally stuff my face. I've always been a big eater. I love to eat, but I'm not a big overeater, but I would overeat so much. I couldn't stop. It was all so delicious. And by the end of the trip, I was so sick to my stomach because I had done damage.
Mariana Velasquez:
"I've overdone it."
Johanna Almstead:
Because the food was so incredibly delicious and so fresh. And it was a lot of things at that time. And this was in the '90s also. I hadn't had in the US, like specific cheeses or fruits, whatever. Anyway, whenever I think of Colombian food, I think about me literally doubled over with a stomach ache because I ate too much. Oh, my goodness. Okay. So you published your first book and it was received well and it was exciting even though it was under these weird circumstances. Does seem like you're a hard worker, huh? Like you still took this all very, very, very seriously and worked really, really, really, really hard.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. It's very much my mother's philosophy and way of existing. I grew up with fierce women. My mom being one of them, but she's, I don't even know what's the word in English, but she will not get tired. She's 70 this year.
Johanna Almstead:
Tireless.
Mariana Velasquez:
Tireless. She will be turning 70 and she is not afraid. She's such a hard worker. And so that example, which also of course comes with this inability to rest. I have a really hard time resting. I have a really hard time stopping and I'm learning and I'm practicing. But yeah, it's much more natural to just go, go, go. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. What happened after that? What happened after your book?
Mariana Velasquez:
So then that book also opened up all these doors and all these opportunities to do different kinds of consulting work. I had many years before started making the aprons that I wore on set. So remember I went from wearing chefs whites in restaurant kitchens to food magazines to then being on set as a food stylist, which is a very creative space, usually beautiful studios and locations with the agency, art directors. So I felt if I'm cooking and if I'm styling food and I still need to wear an apron because it's really, a lot of the times you are cooking up a storm, I want to look good while I'm doing this. I want to feel a sense of pride and also wear something utilitarian but something that makes me feel well-dressed. And so I designed this apron, which is a crossback apron with long tails-
Johanna Almstead:
They're so pretty. So beautiful.
Mariana Velasquez:
... and people started asking, "Is that a dress? Is that an apron? I can't believe it. Where can I buy it?" So I started making them for sale. Then we were featuring the New York Times and then the brand sort of blew up. So after-
Johanna Almstead:
You didn't really intend to start a brand, right?
Mariana Velasquez:
No, not really. I mean, it was sort of like a side thing and because I didn't even have a website, like we would just sell to whoever asked like, "Oh yeah, I'll send the messenger with the apron." It was very much that kind of thing. And then this hostingware brand came alive called Casa Velasquez, which I still have. And so I evolved the brand from only aprons to then tableware. And then it's been a delicious journey of creating product and putting it out in the world, which honestly is the hardest thing ever.
Johanna Almstead:
It's very different, right?
Mariana Velasquez:
But I love designing-
Johanna Almstead:
Running a brand is so different.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. I mean, I love designing. I love coming up with the patterns, the styles, but then...
Johanna Almstead:
You're running a retail business. It's brutal.
Mariana Velasquez:
I hate it. Openly, I have to say.
Johanna Almstead:
It's very hard. I do too.
Mariana Velasquez:
Oh, my God.
Johanna Almstead:
I got you.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. No, it's really, really hard. It's so funny because I think so many people, especially creative people who think they want to start a brand. And I always say to people having worked inside many, many, many brands, I'm like, "I worked in brands and I still tried to start a brand and it was horrible." I was like, "I hate this. I hate shipping and receiving. I hate taxes. I hate all of it."
Mariana Velasquez:
Inventory.
Johanna Almstead:
Inventory. Yeah, all of it. Damages, retail. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard work. And it's very different than what you were doing before because what you were doing before you had so much control and it was like you could begin a project, do a project and end a project in a short amount of time and feel like you did it, right? It's like with retail, it's just sort of this ongoing life.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yes. Yeah, projects beginning and end and very clear. And you work with this team, you work with these people, you relate, you get along, you don't, but the project is over. With a brand is quite different, but it also happened to also kind of like open different doors, have different conversations, learn so much about admin and how to run a business and how to ask for a business loan and how to pitch to investors. I mean, I think everyone in their lifetime should either wash dishes at a restaurant-
Johanna Almstead:
I say this all the time. Everybody has to work in a restaurant. What else?
Mariana Velasquez:
And try to raise capital.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, my God.
Mariana Velasquez:
I think that exercise of putting a business plan together and sitting in front of people and say, "This is my idea." I think it's an exercise that everyone should do. At whatever level.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. So at which point in the business... So you had made the aprons already and then you started getting more demand. At which point did you decide to raise capital? At the very beginning?
Mariana Velasquez:
Sort of halfway sort of when I made the brand a brand and I was like, "I'm going to do two collections a year and have a lookbook and pitch to retailers and do it as a serious business." Maybe two years into it, I was like, "I'm at the end of my rope." It's too expensive. You need too much muscle to do proper advertising, to do samples, to do a lookbook. That alone is super expensive. And so I had a few meetings. I did the business plan. I had a few meetings and then I realized if I actually go this route and take investments, I'm not going to be able to throw pink dinners ever again. I'm not going to be able to go teach workshops other places. I probably won't have time to write another book.
Johanna Almstead:
Were you looking for private money or were you looking for institutional money? Were you meeting with funds or you were meeting with individuals?
Mariana Velasquez:
No, I was meeting with individuals.
Johanna Almstead:
Individuals. Okay. And so you decided not to take any investments?
Mariana Velasquez:
I decided to not do it and say, "Okay, I'm going to keep the business alive, keep selling what I have, keep promoting it in my way." And one day I get a call from a friend, she's like, "Listen, I'm going to introduce you to this woman who owns restaurants in San Francisco and she saw your aprons and she wants you to design the uniforms for her new space. Meet with her." And she's like, "But she's also very much an in person person. She's so busy, it's hard to nail her down and like Zoom might not work and she's in New York." So I call her and she's like, "Well, the thing is that I'm flying out tomorrow." And I was flying out the next day as well. So I proposed that we meet at the TWO Hotel on Terminal Five at JFK to have a coffee and she was like, "Of course, let's meet." We met, we had a two-hour conversation. By the end of it she's like, "Do you want to design this restaurant?"
Johanna Almstead:
The entire restaurant?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. And I was like-
Johanna Almstead:
Not just the uniforms anymore, the entire restaurant. Holy shit.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. And I said yes.
Johanna Almstead:
Holy shit. Okay.
Mariana Velasquez:
I've been working on this project for a year and a half now and it's a beautiful project in the Ferry Building in San Francisco and it's just been the dream. It's designing interiors, it's working with creatives, it's curating the china, the glassware, the furniture, the art. It's all the things that I absolutely love.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my God, I love this so much.
Mariana Velasquez:
So you just never know. One thing will lead to another and...
Johanna Almstead:
Well, I think it's also true though, trusting your gut, like when you were set to go really, really all in on this product line and really, really all in on this, like running this brand and scaling it sounds like if you were going to take investments, scaling it to a big level and then you like some little inkling of yours was like, "You know, this isn't quite the right thing."
Mariana Velasquez:
This isn't the right thing.
Johanna Almstead:
And then something better came along, which I think is such a nice lesson of like, it's okay to close the door, right? Sometimes you have to close the door on something and...
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah, it's okay to change direction, right?
Johanna Almstead:
And then when did the Sur La Table thing happen? Because I was shopping it on the discount code this morning.
Mariana Velasquez:
Amazing. So I was in Seattle at the Sur La Table headquarters with Breville. There are these beautiful appliance brand from Australia. They have been clients for a long time. I do recipe development for them, styling. I've been a brand ambassador for Breville. And so I was shooting with them in Seattle and I was wearing my apron going through the office and the brand director saw me and she's like, "Who are you and what are you wearing? And let's have a conversation." And she joined our dinner that night and she asked me point-blank, she's like, "What's your dream? What do you want?" And I said, "I want to design a whole line for a big retail [inaudible 00:41:56]." And so she laughed and she's like, "Are you serious?" I said, "Yes, I have my own brand and what I love the most is the design part, but the production, distribution, sales, that's all where my soul sort of escapes. And so I would love that."
Johanna Almstead:
I feel you. I feel you on that.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. And we started the conversation and a year later we had signed the deal.
Johanna Almstead:
Amazing. Okay. So for listeners, the product is on the website now. It's in store. I don't know if it's in stores too, but-
Mariana Velasquez:
It's in stores.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Sur La Table. It's so beautiful, so, so, so beautiful. So if you don't know it already, go check it out. Okay. And now tell me about book number two. Tell me about how Revel came about.
Mariana Velasquez:
So in Colombiana, there's a chapter called Ala Mesa, to the table, which is a chapter that features menus from different regions of Colombia celebrating the identity of each place with its music, its traditions, the way people dress, their accent, but it feels like what it smells like because of Colombia's biodiversity. Every region is quite unique. So in that chapter, I developed entire menus with playlists and giving people instructions on how to make it feel like you're there. And I never thought that people would actually prepare the whole menu, play the playlist, do a setup. And I started seeing on social media, on emails, people sending me photos of their tablescape, of their spread. It became a way to have shared meals where I bring the empanadas, you make the arroz con leche. People would have [inaudible 00:43:40] using these menus, these menu formats.
And I thought, well, I also don't think about food as isolated recipes. I think about food as a whole, as a whole menu, as a whole experience. So I'm going to write this book that it's also a way to first give myself permission of hosting in a way that's authentic, imperfect, loose, organic, wonderful and then also find a way to communicate that to others, especially people who feel intimidated by hosting or by having people over or by setting a table.
Johanna Almstead:
You wrote in your book, "Hosting at its purest needs no frills. Stripped of ceramics, place cards and decor, it becomes an act of grace, a way to hold onto a fleeting moment, to celebrate it in the present and as a memory to look back on. Hosting is not just for others but for yourself. I am the most important guest in my home and you can be too." It makes me want to cry again.
Mariana Velasquez:
Me too when I wrote it.
Johanna Almstead:
It really is though. It's funny because if you've listened to this podcast, you know I love hosting and I really do see it as an act of grace. I see it as... it's like my religion and it's interesting that so many people are so intimidated by it. And I think it's that you like really tap into something there of this idea. I think we had like the Martha Stewarts of the world who was brilliant, but I think everything was so perfect and everything was so freshly grown and on her farm and milked her own cows and did all the things. And I think that it scares a lot of people and I don't really know why.
I mean, I definitely was raised by a mom who... like my mother, even we were having the simplest food every night we had proper table linens, we had brass candle holders, we had candles lit every night, we had fresh baked bread, we had salad and it was not fancy at all, but that was the minimum bar was just like, you always set a proper table and you always sat down and had conversation around the table and I guess a lot of people didn't do that. So I think that's maybe part of what's scary, right?
Mariana Velasquez:
I think so. I think that part of it may be that. I also grew up very much like you where there was always a properly set table no matter what. I also think that what can be intimidating is that everything's documented, right? Is it Instagram worthy? Our private lives have become public and I do... Obviously right now I can't because part of this whole journey is to promote this book and the collection and the whole thing. But honestly, what if dinner parties went back to being private? You can only see it if you're there.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, that's what's so funny. So my little social media team is always trying to get me to record when I'm cooking and when I'm preparing drinks and when I'm hosting and it feels sort of sacrilegious to me.
Mariana Velasquez:
This is too personal. It's too private.
Johanna Almstead:
I can't do it. I don't want to do it. And part of I think what makes a dinner party magical is the privacy, right? The things that happen behind closed doors and the conversations that people will have when they're not on camera and when they're not being photographed and they're not being listened to. And I think that that's... So yeah, I understand that balance because it's hard because you want to promote your work and you want to inspire people. I think that that part is exciting and people are inspired by what you share, but then you also want to hold some of it to feel more sacred, I think, right?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, my goodness. Okay. Revel came out, when did it come out? How many? It was like not that long ago.
Mariana Velasquez:
March 17th.
Johanna Almstead:
March 17th. So just a couple months ago. It is so, so beautiful and it really is, it's funny because I would not consider myself a maximalist, but I am like loving all the imagery, it's so, so gorgeous. And I have to say even the cover photo, I went down a deep dive on eBay trying to find this cup because I was like, "What is that cup?" And I need them.
Mariana Velasquez:
So I found those cups in Connecticut's Elephant Trunk Flea Market.
Johanna Almstead:
No way.
Mariana Velasquez:
And they were part of this whole set, a whole enamel picnic set. That was a dream.
Johanna Almstead:
So good. They're so good.
Mariana Velasquez:
So good.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. I was like, now I need that cup and now I couldn't find it in the right shape. I was like, nope, it's not the right shape because I'm a lunatic. Those just happen. Okay. So you wanted to inspire people to throw parties. You wanted them to know that they can do it, that it doesn't have to be perfect. It can be over the top and fun. It can be crazy or it can be casual and it's all about sort of this celebratory spirit. Yeah?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah, exactly.
Johanna Almstead:
It's so beautiful.
Mariana Velasquez:
And each menu, there's 15 menus. Each menu is in a different time of day because light, light is so important than how it feels and how we feel, how we look. It's all part of the narrative. And a lot of the menus tell stories of my life, of the parties I threw, of the things I hosted, of the food I cooked. So it's all very much in some ways biographical because there were so many of those menus and those parties that happened that then I recreated either for the photo shoot or now writing the recipes as opposed to just sort of making food.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. I love it. It feels very, very personal and very beautiful. When you were little, when you were growing up in Bogota, did you have a picture of what success or what having it all would look like?
Mariana Velasquez:
Interesting. There were examples. And I think for instance, to me, my maternal grandmother Adela, who raised six children, she was married to my grandfather for 60 years. She had a beautiful home. She was a incredible cook. She was such a resilient, wonderful, warm human that didn't live in luxury, that didn't have expensive things. She dressed really well, but she didn't have brands and jewelry and she lived well, but there was none of that luxury. But to me, her life was the epitome of success because she was always surrounded by people who appreciated her and that... I mean, it makes me totally choke up. And then my mother, who I mentioned before, super successful, self-made, entrepreneur, pioneer in the art of the table, funny enough in Colombia. She has multiple stores around the country. She curates luxury tableware from Europe.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh my gosh, that is crazy.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Apple doesn't fall far from the tree, I guess. Full circle.
Mariana Velasquez:
It is full circle. And to watch her just build her business in a country like Colombia in the '80s, in the '90s on her own, I was like, "That is success. Making it that way is success."
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Do you feel like you've made it?
Mariana Velasquez:
No.
Johanna Almstead:
Not yet. Not yet.
Mariana Velasquez:
Not yet. No. I mean, I recognize so many of the things that have happened, that I've earned ,the effort I've put in having books and all of it. Of course, I recognize it and intellectually I understand it, but there's a feeling of like I need to keep going.
Johanna Almstead:
Where do you think that comes from?
Mariana Velasquez:
Oh my God, this thing of like, it's never quite enough.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. So you're not alone in that, by the way. Lots of people on this podcast talk about that. So you have a lot of creative output, right? You are constantly putting out work, ideas, energy, creation. What do you do to fill yourself back up? How do you nourish yourself? How do you inspire yourself? How do you make sure that you can remain in a sort of creative flow state? How do you take care of your creative spirit?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. I go for long walks anywhere I am. In Mexico City last week, I do these incredible walks. Here in New York. It's my form of survival. I feel like that time where I'm not on my phone where I'm also not listening to anything, I'm just walking and observing and sort of taking it in and watching people and seeing beautiful buildings or walking through nature. That's in some ways how I recharge. And then honestly, when I gather with small groups of friends, it's great conversation and we're all cooking, or if I'm not cooking and we're ordering, or if someone else is cooking and we're just in this precious time where everyone cares, I get a big charge.
Johanna Almstead:
Obviously you're wildly creative, but you also seem to have a very savvy business side. Which do you lead from? Do you have to balance? Did one need to be cultivated? Are they both equally... How do those live inside you, I guess?
Mariana Velasquez:
No, the creative side leads because I want... I mean, I've become more savvy at managing the business, but if the photo shoot costs more and I want it to be this way, it's really hard for me to give that up. It's like I'll pay extra for the graphics to be better and maybe perhaps that's not that savvy, but it's like I cannot do it the other way then because I would be sacrificing something that's the whole reason. So yeah, no creativity leads for better or worse.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. So even though you don't feel like you've made it, is there an achievement that you have done that you're most proud of?
Mariana Velasquez:
I think Revel, my most recent book, not only because it's a book that many publishers were interested in, that there was a bidding-
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, a bidding war?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah, I had a bidding war.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that for you. Yes.
Mariana Velasquez:
So it felt like a huge accomplishment, but it was also because Revel is very personal and it also told my story of the last 15, 20 years when I was about to hand in my manuscript on December 7th of 2024, we had already shot the book. I had already written the whole thing and I was about to submit what's called the first delivery of the material two weeks before my marriage imploded. And it was a book that was entirely written in plural. When we have people over, our home, when he plans the playlist, when we... It was all the story from the voice of us. And when I knew it was imminent and this project was about to be delivered, I sat down and I changed the manuscript.
Johanna Almstead:
You rewrote the book in two weeks.
Mariana Velasquez:
I mean, I rewrote, I changed the we's for my. I deleted his name 63 times without erasing the story, right? Because also I was married for 10 years, happily so, with a man that I will love my entire life, whom I shared incredible moments with and he was a great co-host. So I couldn't delete that, but I also couldn't, a year and a half later, which is what's happening now, go out to the world to promote a book and a project that was not me, that was not going to be me. And so I don't know where exactly, because honestly, I think it came from elsewhere. I sat and I just changed it, rewrote the introduction, telling this part of the story and reclaimed it. And so that I'm most proud of because it's painful and gut-wrenching with a broken heart. I was able to reclaim myself and to rewrite the story.
Johanna Almstead:
And you had to do it in real time. I feel like most of the time that that stuff is happening or you're going to tell the story of that, it's going to be after you've had time to heal it, right? After you've had a little time to put the pieces back together and then gain your sanity and reflect on it and have a little perspective and you didn't have the opportunity to do that. You had to do it in real time.
Mariana Velasquez:
And I think that the deadline was what saved me.
Johanna Almstead:
It forced you to reclaim yourself right away, you had no choice.
Mariana Velasquez:
It was like I had no choice and there was no alternative. I mean, I didn't even evaluate it.
Johanna Almstead:
You just reacted.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
And did you get any pushback from the publishers or anything? Were they like, "Ah, this isn't quite the book we thought we were getting."?
Mariana Velasquez:
No. I mean, they were incredibly respectful. Nobody asked, especially they had all been... My editor who purchased the book, she was the one who acquired the book. The other editor who was more junior and held my hand through entire editing process after, they all came to dinner at ours. We invited them, we toasted. They were very much, they saw that life. But when I handed in the manuscript, there were no questions asked.
Johanna Almstead:
Wow. Wow. Another moment of grace, huh?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. Talk about respect and kindness, really.
Johanna Almstead:
And trust. I think trust that you were going to deliver something that was what everyone needed, even if it wasn't what they thought they were getting.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
That's really beautiful. That makes me feel good about humankind.
Mariana Velasquez:
Absolutely.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm sorry you went through that, but also I'm so happy for you that you were able to do what you did in that moment and maybe you wouldn't have had to do... I don't know. I wish you didn't have to do it, but it's really a moment of strength and divine intervention or something that you were able to do that.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. No, for sure. And I was months after, that question, "Why did this happen?" Tragedies come on their own. People get sick. There's things that are completely out of our hands, but this felt like we had it all. Why? This was unnecessary. And as time has passed, no, of course it was necessary. Of course, everything is perfect. It's what needed to happen as shitty as it has felt sometimes and not really-
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah, it's not easy.
Mariana Velasquez:
... maybe not easy, hard. It's also this is why we're here, I suppose, to learn, to evolve, to go through hardships so that we can see the beauty and there is a quiet harmony in the pain.
Johanna Almstead:
And in knowing, probably down deep down that you can do this.
Mariana Velasquez:
You can do this.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. Is there anything that you once believed about yourself that you've since outgrown?
Mariana Velasquez:
My goodness. You've had me on the edge of tears the entire time. You're amazing. I believed that I could only do one thing in food, for instance. In my career, I thought I need permission. I need a title. I need a master's degree or I need someone to tell me that yes, I can be other things. And now I know and I've also proved myself that I can be so many things. I can be a designer. I can design interiors. I can host dinners. I can design textiles. I can teach-
Johanna Almstead:
Write books.
Mariana Velasquez:
You can do whatever you want.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
That's beautiful. That's really beautiful. Well, you talked a little bit about your marriage and I think that that would probably be considered a sacrifice, but what other sacrifices have you had to make to do the work and be where you are in your life? Because I think it's so important as women that we talk about that part too, because it's real.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah, it's real. But it's interesting. I don't necessarily see it as sacrifice. I mean, we compromise, right? In my case, I've had to give up living in the comfort of being with my family, growing up cuddled and way more comfortable financially with the things that happen in a Latin American country where the girls are taken care of in different ways. Also demanded of many other ways and expected of. But so that I think being away from my family, from my country has been part of the compromise. But honestly, I think every choice is the right choice even when it's uncomfortable. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
That feels like a good way to live.
Mariana Velasquez:
Right. I don't always feel that way every day.
Johanna Almstead:
Right. You can remind yourself.
Mariana Velasquez:
Exactly.
Johanna Almstead:
I feel very strongly about this for women in particular and I feel like you sort of... It seems like you live your life in a little bit of a dream state, but what are you dreaming about these days?
Mariana Velasquez:
I'm dreaming about summer. I'm dreaming of taking time. It's been so intense and back to back that I'm dreaming of just endless days of swimming and walking and spending time with people I love. And I am dreaming of romance and that next connection. Honestly, yes.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I just got goosebumps
Mariana Velasquez:
From a place of... It's just so wonderful when you fall in love. When you fall in love with yourself, when you fall in love with someone else, with a dream, with a project, but really that romance and feeling in a place where my heart is open and see what happens.
Johanna Almstead:
I'm excited. That's fun. I love that for you. Okay. We are now finally at the lightning round of silly questions. Many of them are food related just because I like to talk about food, but not all of them are. Favorite comfort food?
Mariana Velasquez:
Pasta.
Johanna Almstead:
Any particular preparation or just pasta?
Mariana Velasquez:
I mean, bucatini with rich tomato sauce, garlicky, spicy.
Johanna Almstead:
Yummy. What was your first paid job ever? The first time you ever exchanged labor for money?
Mariana Velasquez:
I worked at my mom's store wrapping gifts during Christmas.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love that. Okay. Other than hosting, cooking, throwing parties, doing all the things, what is something you are really good at?
Mariana Velasquez:
I'm really good at listening.
Johanna Almstead:
What is something you're really bad at?
Mariana Velasquez:
Oh, my God. I'm very bad at things like accounting.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. I get you.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. Excel. All I know is equal, sum, parenthesis. My most sophisticated formula in Excel.
Johanna Almstead:
I got you. Yeah. I can relate to that as well. What is your favorite word?
Mariana Velasquez:
Exuberant.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that. Okay. Least favorite food. I mean, I feel like this might be hard for you because you probably eat all the things, but what is your least favorite?
Mariana Velasquez:
I eat all the things, but there's this one flavor. Well, there are two flavors that I really dislike.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay.
Mariana Velasquez:
I don't like caraway.
Johanna Almstead:
Caraway. Okay.
Mariana Velasquez:
Caraway seeds. They're in rye bread. There's something that I don't like. I mean, if I come to your home and it's only caraway, only rye bread.
Johanna Almstead:
I planned a caraway themed dinner this evening. Everything's going to be a very strange color of beige and taste odd.
Mariana Velasquez:
Right. I mean, I'll eat it, but I don't like it. And I also controversially do not like the combination of mint and chocolate.
Johanna Almstead:
Interesting.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. I don't get it. I don't want mint chocolate chip ice cream. I don't want mint wafers covered in chocolate. I do not like that.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. I like it. I like it. Least favorite word.
Mariana Velasquez:
Lazy.
Johanna Almstead:
This one I added especially for you because I don't always ask anybody. What is your favorite recipe you've ever made? I know this is going to be such a hard choice. It's totally not fair. But I felt like I had to.
Mariana Velasquez:
Oh my God, that's so hard. I do have to say there is this recipe in Revel. It's actually on the cover for the picnic lunch and it's a cherry ricotta cake with cardamom where you soak the cherries in red vermouth and then you make a very simple, easy batter. So it's like the perfect summer cake because it bakes very fast. But then with the cherries in early June, it's just perfection.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, my God.
Mariana Velasquez:
It's one of my favorites. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
It's so pretty with all the flowers and the fresh cherries too. Okay, that sounds delicious. Now I want to make that. Do you have any hobbies?
Mariana Velasquez:
So I've been drawing quite a bit, which is how this Sur La Table collection. I was going to work with one of the artists that I work with for the prints for Casa Velasquez. And therapeutically, I started drawing and drawing things and just taking botanical books and sort of finding ways to imitate the lines and the strokes. And then that's how I decided to design the collection myself, just not only-
Johanna Almstead:
So you drew all those. You drew all the prints on them.
Mariana Velasquez:
I did. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I was looking at them this morning and I was like, "I wonder who drew these?" Because I remember you... I must have read it on your website or something. I remember you talking about working with other artists. And so I wondered if you had hired somebody else or who had done them. They're extraordinary. I love them.
Mariana Velasquez:
Thank you. Yeah, it was very much an experiment and going for it and practicing and practicing and practicing and learning how to from paper translate it to digital because you have to do that in order to remove layers. And it's one thing for it to be a print of art. It's very different when you're printing plates and layering the designs and textiles. So that's become a hobby and that's something aside from the Sur La Table project, which was a one-off, I think, that I do with no expectation, with no goal, with no competition with myself, with no expected outcome. I just bring my markers and I just draw.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that. What's the best piece of advice you've ever received?
Mariana Velasquez:
Two things can be true.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that one. That's become a big theme in my life in the last, I would say three years.
Mariana Velasquez:
I received that advice only a couple days ago. And of course I had had incredible advice, but because I did not overthink it, that phrase a couple of days ago, those words just-
Johanna Almstead:
It's really helpful.
Mariana Velasquez:
... really freeing. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Lighter.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
It's really helpful to understand that it doesn't have to be black and white. Things don't have to be black and white. It's not always an if this, not that, or that two things can be true at the same time and they can be equally torturous or one can be beautiful and one can be torturous and that those can happen. I don't know. It's very freeing to me too. I agree. It calms me down a little bit. For somebody who likes to put things in places, it helps me.
Mariana Velasquez:
No kidding.
Johanna Almstead:
Right? Okay. This is a good one. If your personality were a flavor, what would it be?
Mariana Velasquez:
If my personality were a flavor? Oh my God, I love this question. If my personality were a flavor, it would be... Oh, my God. I don't even know. It's too hard of a question, but maybe-
Johanna Almstead:
I know. I feel like especially for someone like you who really understands flavors so much-
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah, exactly.
Johanna Almstead:
... and probably knows every flavor on the planet. It's also a tough one.
Mariana Velasquez:
It's a tough one, but I would say more than a flavor, I think it would be a specific food.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, okay. Okay. We can go there. I like that.
Mariana Velasquez:
Because it's many things, right? So I would say anchovies packed in olive oil because it's rich and creamy, but also salty, but also a little bit sweet and it goes with many things.
Johanna Almstead:
And usually comes in super chic packaging.
Mariana Velasquez:
Exactly. Very well packaged.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that. I like it. Now you're making me want that with crusty bread.
Mariana Velasquez:
Right. Exactly. Olive oil, lemon.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. This one I feel like, this is going to be a hard one for you. So last supper, you are leaving this body and this earth tomorrow, but it's not sad. It's super celebratory. Everything's great. What are you eating for dinner tonight?
Mariana Velasquez:
Wow. We're definitely eating caviar bumps. We're having caviar bumps followed by creamy, scrambled eggs and toast and maybe closing with a bloody steak and a martini.
Johanna Almstead:
Ah, yes.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Can I come?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yes.
Johanna Almstead:
Are we drinking anything with the caviar and the scrambled eggs?
Mariana Velasquez:
Probably champagne.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Good. I just wanted to make sure.
Mariana Velasquez:
Most likely. Yes.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. Just checking.
Mariana Velasquez:
We're covered.
Johanna Almstead:
We're covered. Okay, good. Have you had a moment in your life where you've had to eat your words?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Would you like to share? You don't have to if you don't want to get specific.
Mariana Velasquez:
No. Yeah. Eesh.
Johanna Almstead:
It's very uncomfortable for most people.
Mariana Velasquez:
I was convinced and said it out loud that my agent didn't believe in me and didn't care. And it turns out that because I never told her how I felt, she could never show me what she could give me. And now our relationship has evolved in this beautiful way, but if there's someone who has my back and cares about me, it's her and I definitely had to eat my words.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. But maybe by saying so is how you found out?
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah. So maybe. I'm glad that she has your back though. That matters a lot. If you could eat only one food for the rest of your life all day, every day, it doesn't have to sustain you nutritionally. Don't worry about it. We're on another planet. Because some people get stressed. Some people are like, "Oh, I need protein, but I also eat fiber." I'm like, "No, don't worry about it. Just whatever." It's all just a dream. What would you eat all day, every day?
Mariana Velasquez:
If I could only have one thing for the rest of my life, I would say I really love green mango with salt, pepper, and lemon. That's the kind of thing that it's like I love it. I could just eat it.
Johanna Almstead:
It's very Colombiana.
Mariana Velasquez:
It's very Colombiana.
Johanna Almstead:
That was the first place I ever had that was in Cali and I was like, "What is this magical combination?" Okay, green mango. Where is your happy place?
Mariana Velasquez:
My happy place is anywhere I am and anywhere where I wake up and I have a good cup of coffee. It's really my happy place. I could say something dreamy like, "Oh my God, the beach in Ibiza." No, I mean, of course. But honestly, my happy place is because you don't always wake up and there's a good cup of coffee. Sometimes it's like a machine thing with a pod, which is not my happy place.
Johanna Almstead:
Not your happy place. And you don't realize that you're there until you're there and then you're stuck.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah. Like, what?
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, okay. What did you have for dinner last night?
Mariana Velasquez:
Last night I went to dinner with Genton Hires, the photographers of my books and we shared the roast chicken and bucatini that was very much like a really yummy olive oil, garlic aglio e olio and a little bit too much wine. But yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
There you go. I mean, it happens. Happens to the best of us. What do you wear when you feel like you need to take on the world other than your beautiful aprons?
Mariana Velasquez:
Red lips, honestly. The red lipstick is my armor, but I wear a fabulous dress.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
This is going to be a hard one for you. Most memorable meal you've ever had that you were... I guess you could have prepared it, but also that you sat down and actually ate, not just one that you prepared for somebody else.
Mariana Velasquez:
Most memorable. That's hard.
Johanna Almstead:
Is there a restaurant that you remember that you first went to or a friend's house who just did something perfect or an event? I don't know. Yeah. Hard. I mean, you're in the biz, man. You have a lot of memorable meals.
Mariana Velasquez:
But my friends, Anna and Fernando, who moved away, they're now in France and they used to be neighbors and I miss them dearly clearly. The meals at their home outside with a long table with beautiful linens, his food being just like easy, delicious, fresh, abundant, generous. Those meals will stay in my mind forever, the meals in their home.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that. What is your go to coping mechanism on a bad day? So shit's going sideways, you can't figure out the accounting Excel sheet, you're going to be late for a deadline. The spinach at the farmer's market was not what you wanted it to be. What do you do? How do you cope?
Mariana Velasquez:
So I take a hot shower. I take a hot shower and then if I cannot see a friend right away, I make a phone call and that really helps, just that perspective.
Johanna Almstead:
Yeah.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that. The hot shower is real for me too.
Mariana Velasquez:
It's real also because you cannot... Your mind may be spiraling but your body's resetting and also you can't be on your phone. Not in my shower. I don't know about yours.
Johanna Almstead:
I will not. I will not even try. No.
Mariana Velasquez:
Right. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
I laugh because someone asked me this once and like, "What is the best advice you ever got?" And I always joke, it was like a parenting advice. It was like from some Danish parenting expert or something, but it was called, they said when they're crabby, put them in water. And I always thought that was really funny about kids obviously, but like put them in a pool or let them go run in the rain or put them in the shower. But I actually use it for like myself and my husband too. If I'm like, he comes home grumbling. I'm like, "Just why don't you just go take a bath, like go take a shower." For me now, a hot shower or a hot bath is like the answer to everything. My daughter came home the other day so upset about something that happened with her friends and all this stuff.
And I just said, "Put down your phone. We're running you a bath, putting all the nice salt into the bath. I'm going to light a candle and you're just going to take a bath." That's it. So I get it.
Mariana Velasquez:
Perfection. Yes. Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
When you're crabby, put yourself in water.
Mariana Velasquez:
I will not forget that.
Johanna Almstead:
Right? Just makes me laugh.
Mariana Velasquez:
Brilliant.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. This one's going to be hard for you too. These are very hard for you. I feel sort of bad because this is not fair. Dream dinner party guest list, dead or alive. Anyone you want and they're all going to say yes because some people get worried also about... Just how they get worried about the nutrition. It's usually the same person who's like, "Well, I don't think they're going to say yes to me because they don't know me." I'm like, "Don't worry about it. You can invite Margaret Thatcher. She'll come." Whoever it is. So what is your dream dinner party guest list? And you don't even have to cook if you don't want. You can just sit and enjoy it all.
Mariana Velasquez:
Okay.
Johanna Almstead:
Don't even worry about hosting it. I'm hosting it for you and I'm cooking and I'm preparing. It's going to be gorgeous. So who do you want to sit with at the table?
Mariana Velasquez:
Okay. I want to sit with Pedro Almodovar, the Spanish director.
Johanna Almstead:
Yes.
Mariana Velasquez:
Rosie de Palma, who's this fantastic Spanish actress who was an Almodovar girl. Frances McDormand.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, my God. So good.
Mariana Velasquez:
That should be hilarious and fabulous. Just not give a shit, but really just be very present.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, good.
Mariana Velasquez:
I would like to have my grandmother for sure and my grandfather, both of them. And with that group, I would bring my friends Taraja, Anna, Gaylene, Ahmed.
Johanna Almstead:
Because they would fit the vibe. They would get the whole situation.
Mariana Velasquez:
They would get the vibe. They would make everybody comfortable. Pablo. Yeah. They would just like-
Johanna Almstead:
It would all work.
Mariana Velasquez:
... make it all work.
Johanna Almstead:
I love it. It sounds fun.
Mariana Velasquez:
So fun.
Johanna Almstead:
Who are you seating next to Frances McDormand? That's what I want to know.
Mariana Velasquez:
My friend Pablo, who is also fierce, also controversial, has huge opinions.
Johanna Almstead:
Perfect. Perfect. Okay. So lastly, what is one thing that you know for sure right now in this moment? You don't have to know it again tomorrow. You didn't have to know it even this morning or yesterday. What is one thing that feels true to you right now?
Mariana Velasquez:
That it's okay to take my time.
Johanna Almstead:
I love that. It's okay to take your time. Your time.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Right? Your time.
Mariana Velasquez:
Yeah.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, I love that. Can you please tell the nice people where they can find you on your Instagram and your website and where they can buy the book and where they can buy the aprons and where they can buy all the dishes. All the things. You have so many things. We need a link tree. We need a link tree.
Mariana Velasquez:
Exactly. A link tree. So my Instagram is Mariana VelazquezV. My website is MarianaVelasquez.com and through there you can go to Casa Velasquez, which is my hostingware brand. My books are sold anywhere books are sold. I encourage you to support your-
Johanna Almstead:
Independent booksellers.
Mariana Velasquez:
... independent booksellers. And the Sur La Table collection is in stores nationwide and online on the Sur La Table website.
Johanna Almstead:
And is it in stores for a limited amount of time? What's the deal with that?
Mariana Velasquez:
It's a capsule. So essentially until we finish inventory.
Johanna Almstead:
Okay. So if you want it people, you need to go to Sur La Table soon. It will not be there again.
Mariana Velasquez:
Exactly.
Johanna Almstead:
It's a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Mariana Velasquez:
Once in a lifetime.
Johanna Almstead:
Well, thank you so very much for taking so much time, for sharing your heart and your work and your perspective with me today. This has been a delight. I can't wait to have you to my house for dinner so I can feed you and I can be your host. And I'm really, really, really grateful for this time and I know it's just been a lot for you, so I know that this is precious time of yours and I'm forever grateful for it. So thank you.
Mariana Velasquez:
I am grateful. This has been so special. Thank you.
Johanna Almstead:
Oh, my goodness. I could have talked to her for hours. I really do feel like in some ways she speaks my religion, which is, you know if you listen to this podcast, the magic that happens over tables when we share our stories and we share beautiful food and beautiful drinks and beautiful conversation. I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I just love her perspective and I love her heart and I love her drive and her attention to all the details. So I hope you enjoyed it as well. If you know somebody who might enjoy this episode or need a little inspiration, please send it to them. You can copy and paste it in your media player and you can put that in a DM, you can put that in a social media post, you can put it in a text or an email, all the things.
But every time you share those episodes, it really does help us grow this platform and this amazing community that we are just loving so much. And if you're not doing so already, please follow us on Eat My Words The Podcast on both Instagram and TikTok. We are there doing fun stuff. And as always, thank you. Thank you so very much for tuning in. Thank you for listening to our stories. Thank you for sharing some of yours and I'll catch you on the next one.
This Eat My Words podcast was created, produced, and directed by me, Johanna Almsteqd. Our sound editor is Isabel Robertson and our social media manager is Isabella Boutros.