A Mother’s love
Diana Silva a San Diego-based home chef has written a tender story, Molé Mama – A Memoir of Love, Cooking, and Loss, in which you’ll feel the love between Diana and her beloved mother, Rose, and swear that you smell Sonora enchiladas, Spanish rice, mole, and other delicious Mexican food simmering in your kitchen.
Full disclosure: Some of the links are affiliate links, meaning, at no additional cost to you, we will earn a small commission if you click through and purchase a product which helps support our site. We only recommend things which we love.
Culinary Training Begins
Diana was just nine years old, and when her culinary training began. Rose was making her legendary flour tortillas, and Diana’s big job was to mix the masa. Rose expertly poured water, flour, salt, and a little baking powder in the bowl, and Diana eagerly put her small hands in the bowl and tried to follow her mother’s patient instructions on how to mix it. Diana loved the way the sticky dough felt in her little fingers. She was so very proud and excited to help her mama. Diana didn’t understand the road she had embarked on that afternoon and the joy she’d experience cooking with her mother for more than 20 years.
A Shared Love of Food
Rose was a patient, loving teacher, and her food was magical! She had a way of making everyone feel at home around her, loved, listened too like they were important and cared for, and always filled their tummies with a memorable meal. Their love of food and cooking together was the basis for their close relationship, and as Rose battles, a terminal illness, once again home-cooked food, is at the center of their farewell. Diana cooks her mother’s heirloom Mexican recipes every weekend while Rose presides from her nearby hospice bed and completes taste tests to ensure that Diana has perfected her favorite dishes. None of these multi-generational recipes had been written down. Diana knew how to make several of her dishes before Rose became terminally ill, but whenever they cooked together, Rose always added more spices and made the final tweaks to recipes when Diana wasn’t in the kitchen. So it was in these last thirteen months that Diana knew she had to perfect their cherished family heirloom recipes or they’d be lost forever.
Secrets to a Good Life
Rose also uses this precious time to help Diana understand the secrets to a good life: forgiveness, love, faith, and gratitude for every moment. Witnessing her mother’s grace and zest for life during these last few months changes Diana’s understanding of how to live, and this is the best recipe her mother ever shared.
Diana hopes that her story will inspire you to be courageous, present, authentic, and vulnerable during your farewell journeys. Reviews describe it as a mix of Like Water for Chocolate and Tuesdays with Morrie. Many readers have shared that Diana’s book brought them deep comfort and an understanding that they weren’t alone in their heartbreaking farewells.
About the Author
About the author – Diana Silva is a San Diego-based home chef, video blogger, and podcaster. Her Molé Mama Recipes YouTube channel celebrates family recipes, cooking delicious meals at home, and adding love to every recipe. Diving into her Latina roots, she uses her magical molcajete, and other tools and techniques that make her food taste like grandma used to make back in Mexico. Along with her guest chefs, Diana explores recipes and traditions from all over the world and the stories that keep them alive. Diana is calling everyone to return to their kitchens and to preserve their living and past ancestors’ favorite recipes and stories for future generations.
“We need to try to preserve our cultures and not just let those favorite recipes disappear forever. The common thread of every cherished family recipe is that they were homemade with love, and that’s the real secret ingredient,” says Diana. For many home chefs, cooking is their preferred love language, and that’s why we cherish their recipes. Their love has the power to transcend an ordinary recipe into magic!
Diana encourages everyone to preserve those precious recipes and the stories that make them unique. She invites those whose recipes have been lost or have faded over time to subscribe to her YouTube channel, there are plenty of recipes and traditions to share, and you just might be inspired to create your own because “Every Recipe Tells a Story.” Many of the recipes in this book are on her YouTube channel.
Leave a Reply