TamalFest: Connie Ortiz-Johnson on passing down recipes from mother to daughter
By hola | Published | No Comments
Connie Ortiz-Johnson started cooking at the age of 7, working alongside her mother and grandmother in their Zacatecas, Mexico kitchen.
After growing up and marrying a U.S. diplomat, who whisked her off to a life in the U.S. Foreign Service, she traveled the world. Wherever they lived, she’d earn a reputation for her parties and the Mexican food she served. Even years later, she recalls, she meets people who still rave about her cooking.
Today she lives in Silver Spring with her daughter and grandson and has a catering business, Connie’s Authentic Mexican Cuisine, making a wide range of Mexican food. Several times a year, particularly around Christmas time, Day of the Dead, and Mexican Independence Day in September, she makes thousands of tamales for private parties and institutional clients.
For TamalFest DC, she’s planning to make northern Mexico-style pork and chicken tamales, plus tamales filled with rajas con queso (poblano peppers with cheese) from a recipe she has adapted to cater to vegetarians.
Ortiz invited us to her home a few months ago when she was making another classic recipe, buñuelos. Watch an excerpt in which she talks about the importance of passing down recipes and know-how from one generation to the next.
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