Cover of The Chile Line: Historic Northern New Mexican Recipes by Liddie Martinez. Courtesy photo Liddie Martinez folds the experience of her childhood into her newly published cookbook, The Chile Line: Historic Northern New Mexican Recipes (video).
Her first book signing event is Sunday at the Los Luceros historic site.
Author Liddie MartinezMartinez was born and raised in the Española Valley and in her new book shares her traditional farm-to-table recipes handed down for centuries.
“My mom was a single parent and worked two jobs to support the family from the time I was born,” Martinez said. “During the day she was a housekeeper for Los Alamos families and in the evenings, she was a professional cook at restaurants in Española. When I was a baby, she worked at Matilda’s Café located about a block from our home. Her first job there was roasting and peeling green chile for the restaurant.”
Martinez, the youngest of three sisters, explained that her mother chose to work at Matilda’s Café because she could would walk home during breaks to breast feed her.
“I think that may have been where my deep love of green chile began,” Martinez said.
Over time her mother was promoted to the top job in the kitchen at Matilda’s Café. Because she worked so much, Martinez‘ grandmother, who always lived with the family, became the primary parent. She taught Martinez and her sisters all about running the house and farm, caring for the chickens, sheep and other animals they raised, and tending the garden where much of the family food was grown.
“Everything I learned about traditional farming I learned from my grandmother including preservation of food by canning and drying,” Martinez said. “My grandma was very traditional, and we did not take short cuts. She was the matriarch of the family, so all major holidays and events took place at our house allowing me to learn about cooking for both small and very large parties.”
Not a single recipe was written down, Martinez said, adding that she and her sisters learned everything by shadowing their grandmother and through her stories as she relayed experiences and insight to the family history and her life.
“When I was 11, I started waitressing on the weekends and began my introduction into the restaurant business and professional cooking by following my mother wherever she cooked,” Martinez said. “I really wanted a relationship with her and understood at a very young age that the only way that was going to happen was to work with her. While I mainly worked the front of the house, on occasion, I would cover for someone in the kitchen who called in sick and worked side by side with her learning modern kitchen techniques. While I never thought I would want to go into the restaurant business, farming and cooking have always been a huge part of my life and I always imagined a lifestyle that allowed for that to continue.”
Two years ago, Martinez began writing a food column for the Los Alamos Daily Post, Liddie’s Traditional New Mexican Dishes.
“It was that opportunity that led to me considering the cookbook project,” she said.
Martinez explained that the timing was perfect because she had spent a decade chairing the executive committee to designate the Camino Real de Tierra Adentro a National Historic Trail. In that role she had the unique opportunity to travel the length of that historic migration trail to document historical sites and conduct interviews with the elders in each community.
“During that time, I learned a great deal about food history, Spanish Colonial and Native American history and legacy that the trade routes created, establishing an elaborate commerce system that is still in use today, she said. “Including that historical perspective in both my column and in my book is what draws my readers – it’s all about the history and the stories of a very unique region of land based cultures and shared traditions.”
Martinez said she came to realize that the traditional skills she has learned in her life are not as common as she believed them to be.
“Because our culture is based on oral traditions, many families have lost the connections to their natïve language; couple that with the breakdown of multigenerational connections in our society, it is not uncommon to have whole generations who never had the opportunity to shadow and learn from an elder,” she said.
These northern New Mexican traditions are unique and cherished and must be kept alive through daily practice so that future generations can keep the legacy alive, Martinez said.
“I am happy to share what I know with anyone interested in learning,” she said. “But my main motivation for writing my cookbook is to insure that someday my grandchildren will have a way to connect not only to me but to my mom and grandma and all of the other amazing northern New Mexican women who contributed to the legacy of our culture should they not be able to hear it and learn it directly from me.”
Her cookbook is available beginning today.
Meet Liddie Marinez and get a signed copy of her new cookbook published by Pajarito Press LLC, at one of three upcoming events:
- Sunday, Nov. 17, 2-4 p.m. at the Los Luceros historic site, 253 County Road 41, Los Luceros;
- Tuesday, Nov. 19, 5-7:30 p.m. at Fuller Lodge. 2132 Central Ave. in Los Alamos; and
- Friday, Nov. 22, 5-7:30 p.m. at the Santa Fe Farmers’ Market in the Santa Fe Railyard.
The price for each event is $35/person, which includes green chile stew and tortillas or roll, lemonade and iced tea and a signed copy of The Chile Line: Historic Northern New Mexican Recipes. Register for the nearest Book Signing at TheChileLine.com.
