CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Looking for food editors and food creators, we found one of the most popular in Driscoll: Sweet Life Bake.
Vianney Rodriguez is a food creator, food editor, author, and Southern Living magazine's Cook of the Year, a proud Tejana-mexicana cocinera – Tex-Mex cook -- from South Texas.
"I'm born and raised in South Texas,” she said. “I was born in Aransas Pass, Texas. I've lived in South Texas all my life. I did a little bit of school to become a teacher and quickly realized that was not my calling.”
Sharing her love of Tex-Mex food is Vianney’s calling. Tex-Mex is short for Texans of Mexican heritage.
Tex-Mex food, according to Vianney, is . . .
"A nod of all the Mexican influences with a little bit of Texas flavors,” she said. “We have our comino -- we have the cumin -- we have the serrano (chiles), the jalapeños like we have here, we have the pecans -- so it's a lot of Mexican influence with Texas corazón (heart)."
We grow up eating the food of our culture -- it becomes a part of who we are.
We associate food from our childhood with warm feelings and good memories, tying us to our families.
For Vianney, it was atole, a traditional drink usually made of corn meal, and migas, fried corn tortilla pieces and eggs.
"Something that I grew up enjoying; my mom and my abuelita would make this every Monday before school, it's an atole de avena (oatmeal) con nueces. My mom always added pecans because it's a little nod to South Texas," she said. "Migas is such that comfort dish, and also during Hispanic Heritage (Month), I try to feed my family the dishes I grew up with, and this has such sentimental value to me. My dad was taking care of the kids alone, so this was the only dish he knew how to make."
Food from our family holds a special and personal value for us, often becoming the comfort food we seek as adults.
Vianney wants to help preserve that meaningful connection.
"I want to make sure these recipes don't end with them,” she said. “I want to pass them down to my daughter and the next generation to have it. So when I'm able to go on social media, or my website, and share these recipes, I'm ensuring that the past goes into the future. These recipes are handed down for people that may not have learned how to cook from their abuelita, but they remember eating those recipes."
Tex-Mex food operates as an expression of cultural identity, and through family dishes passed down from generation to generation, tales of struggle, love, pride, and passion are told.
"A lot of these dishes are casera dishes,” she said. “They are home cooked meals from women trying to piece together a meal for their home on a budget, so I think they really speak to the struggles of our families at that time -- how they were coming from Mexico to live here and paving a way making a new life for them.”
The pride she shows in her food and culture were passed down from her parents, she said.
"My mom would have two jobs,” she said. “She would come home she would still make dinner for us. And just seeing them work so hard to achieve their dreams, to give their children a better future. I think that's where I get my pride and my want my resiliency and my want to show this is where we're from. These are our roots. This is our passion."
Vianney celebrates the beauty of South Texas through her dishes. . . .
"Tex-Mex is me,” she said. “That is literally my identity. I am Tejana. I am proud to be it. I love what we grow -- our ruby reds, our pecans, our (Rio Grande) Valley lemons. We're known for beautiful flavors -- our lavender, our bluebonnets. I think it all plays a big part in our identity and our culture."
. . . and plans to continue her lifelong mission.
"On the weekends we have barbecue and asada outside,” she said. “On Sundays, we have menudo. On the holidays, we have tamales. I think we are very rich in our culture, and I think it doesn't get the credit it deserves, so it's that's my lifelong mission to show the beauty of Tex-Mex.”