Puerto Rican Food, MasterChef & Reinvention with Monti Carlo

Wines We're Drinking: Campo Viejo Rioja Reserva 2018 (Tempranillo, Rioja, Spain, about $15-16 at the grocery store) Seis Soles White Blend (Albarino and Grenache Blanc, Lodi, California, about $18) Kicking off Season 7 with a Latina podcast conversation that finally gets into the food side of our culture. Jessica sits down with Monti Carlo, three-time Telly Award winner, cookbook author, and Senior Editor of Food and Dining at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, for a wide-ranging talk on being Puerto Rican in a Mexican-majority San Antonio, the divorce and financial free fall that led her to a MasterChef audition with pies packed in a diaper box, and how she built a career spanning Netflix, Food Network, PBS, and the James Beard Foundation from there. They dig into her cookbook Spanglish, a love letter to bicultural Puerto Rican cooking, why Puerto Rican food is fried the way it is, and the Spanglish mashups she's created, from bacalaito onion rings to morcilla sloppy joes. In This Episode We Cover: [00:00] Welcome to Season 7 with Monti Carlo, AJC Senior Editor of Food and Dining [04:12] What's in the glass: Campo Viejo Rioja Reserva and Ces Soles white blend [13:49] Being Puerto Rican in a Mexican-majority San Antonio, and the "Latino food aisle" problem [26:35] Rock bottom: divorce, debt, and a diaper box full of apple pies [36:47] MasterChef, imposter syndrome, and what Gordon Ramsay gave her [47:07] Keeping the sazon: Puerto Rican ingredients in every Spanglish recipe [55:38] What people get wrong about Puerto Rican food [1:01:23] Spanglish mashups: bacalaito onion rings, morcilla sloppy joes, coconut arepa BLTs [1:09:08] Rebuilding a 157-year-old newspaper's food section for the digital age [1:14:14] How "MC" became Monti Carlo [1:16:10] Where to find Monti and support Spanglish Connect with Monti Carlo: Instagram: @themonticarlo Book: Spanglish, A Love Letter to Bicultural Puerto Rican Cooking (Simon & Schuster), available everywhere books are sold Website: www.themonticarlo.com Connect with Wine & Chisme: Website: www.thewineandchismepodcast.com Instagram: @thewineandchisme TikTok: @thewineandchisme Call us and tell us how we're doing (858) 304-0266 Sin prisa. Sin vergüenza. Con vino.