The Chimichurri Blog

I've decided I will not wait to get that connection with the feeling I am doing a good job at writing a book. I don't have any formal training and even though I have received much help and suggestions from a few friends, some with book writing experience and some without, I still cannot feel that I have a material worth of self-publishing as a book. In the light of such a predicament, I have decided to lay it all out here in the form of a blog. I have seen a few authors that after writing so many blogs they just compiled the collections and turned them into a book. So I will follow their example and create my own path. Will I get an award from the James Beard Foundation? I don't know and I don't expect it. After all, in 10 years in business, I have not been able to grasp the attention from influential people in the food business that will help me reach the stars and exposure for my business De Nada Kitchen & Market.

I do think highly of what I have achieved both as a business owner and as a chef with no prior formal experience or training in either the kitchen or running the business, and while my family and close friends acknowledge my efforts, my ego is not satisfied and is hungry for professional success and acknowledgment. I am successful because I have managed to keep a restaurant alive for over 10 years, a business that helps me feed my family and keep a roof over their heads, a business that encourages respect among the team and our community of supporters, a business where I get to implement and nourish the vision of teamwork makes the dream work and all the things I learned in my career as a Human Resources professional. I don't think of myself as perfect but I do know my business, as well as me, can improve and get better each day.

So, without further ado, I give you The Chimichurri Blog, a series of stories and recipes based on my history with Chimichurri.

PREFACE.

What drives us and motivates us to follow our dreams?

Sometimes that motivation comes from within, from our soul, inspired by the world we live in. Sometimes that motivation is external and it comes from our surroundings in the form of mental seeds that are planted in our subconscious during conversations with our family, friends, and sometimes from all the other people, we come in contact with at some point in our lives.

Before Jo, my wife, and I co-founded Cueva Bar Café, I knew I wanted to connect with other humans and share something full of soul, something that would inspire others to take action in their lives and to follow their hearts. While connecting with family and friends at house parties or holidays I began to feel a certain attraction towards cooking for others that I hadn’t felt before. I had this thought of wanting to cook bread, empanadas, pizzas, whatever the season called for, and share it with my tribe. Eventually, Jo and I opened Cueva Bar Café. It wasn’t until a few years after Cueva first opened its doors that people began to motivate me towards another goal--to write a book and to tell my story. When I was working on how to do this I had a meeting with a dear friend of mine and accountability buddy that led to an “aha!” moment, and so it was that I decided to write this book about the quintessential South American parsley based sauce, marinade and flavor enricher, the famous chimichurri.

With this book, I want to inspire you to cook for your family and friends, to bring them together at the table, sit back, relax and enjoy the energy that’s co-created with the conversation. I hope that the memories you create are worth nourishing, that we continue to pass the very basic skill of cooking with love, and to share this idea of coming together in peace to feed our souls with the generations to come.