MARICEL E.PRESILLA is a chef, culinary historian, and author who specializes in Latin American and Spanish cuisines. She earned her PhD from New York University after studying medieval Spanish history at Spain's University of Valladolid. She has considerable research on the food crops of the Americas and has taught at New York University and Rutgers University. She has a formal training in cultural anthropology. Presilla writes the Cocina column for the Miami Herald and contributes to Saveur, Food & Wine, and Gourmet. She has presented several seminars, tastings, and presentations to culinary groups around the country and has been featured in the country's top food periodicals. She is a renowned authority on all aspects of chocolate as well as Spanish and Latin American culinary history.

She is a member of the Latin American program's advisory council at the Culinary Institute of America, and she was recently designated one of the Top Ten Food Innovators in the United States. Read More chevron_right

MARICEL E.PRESILLA is a chef, culinary historian, and author who specializes in Latin American and Spanish cuisines. She earned her PhD from New York University after studying medieval Spanish history at Spain's University of Valladolid. She has considerable research on the food crops of the Americas and has taught at New York University and Rutgers University. She has a formal training in cultural anthropology. Presilla writes the Cocina column for the Miami Herald and contributes to Saveur, Food & Wine, and Gourmet. She has presented several seminars, tastings, and presentations to culinary groups around the country and has been featured in the country's top food periodicals. She is a renowned authority on all aspects of chocolate as well as Spanish and Latin American culinary history.

She is a member of the Latin American program's advisory council at the Culinary Institute of America, and she was recently designated one of the Top Ten Food Innovators in the United States. Food & Wine will be responsible for the next 30 years. Presilla is the CEO of Gran Cacao, a food marketing firm focusing in chocolate research and heirloom cacao bean sales. She's worked as a consultant for a number of culinary firms, including Chocolates El Rey C.A. in Venezuela, whose gourmet chocolates she helped introduce to the United States.

In Hoboken, New Jersey, she is the co-owner and chef of two restaurants: the tiny pan-Latin Zafra and the more formal South American Cucharamama. Presilla has been nominated for the James Beard Foundation's Best Chef Mid-Atlantic award multiple times for his restaurants. She received the renowned Silver Spoon Award from Food Arts magazine in September 2009 for her diverse contributions to the culinary arts. Presilla is the author of three illustrated books about Latin American culture, as well as a book on Latin American cookery that will be released soon.

Ultramarinos, a food store and cooking atelier in Hoboken, is her most recent enterprise. Her time is split between her restaurants in New Jersey, Miami, and Latin America.