Meet Saré

My name is Saré and I am a food and culture writer. My love for cooking started where most people’s start, in my wela’s kitchen. I remember being a young girl surrounded by the women in my family, making Puerto Rican pasteles. Food was a way to connect to our culture, identity, and a way to resist against the modern day colonization of my motherland.

Every weekend, my grandma would wake me and my cousins up to a Nuyorican breakfast while my grandfather told us stories of back home. We’d listen to salsa and dance while learning phrases over jugo de china y arroz con habichuelas. My Tio Edwin would visit and teach me the techniques of perfecting our pique recipe, including the mandatory week on the roof.

Every holiday, I would visit my father’s mother, Nana. Nana taught me everything I know about technique. At 12, I began cooking dinner with my dad and his mom every night after school. I learned Nana’s mother’s recipes, from Avellino, Italy and my father’s family soul food recipes from the Carolinas. I remember her telling me “pentola guardata non bolle mai“, a watched pot never boils. I’d heed her warnings, throw salt over my left shoulder, and season until the water tasted like the sea.

Food was my way to travel the world and explore my lineage, venerating my ancestors, one dish at a time.

This blog is a way to document and share my cultures with you in the hopes of preservation and building community. Together, we can share this journey of culture, community, and connection!