Daily Inspiration: Meet Adriana Guillen

Today we’d like to introduce you to Adriana Guillen

Hi Adriana, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
I grew up in a small remote village in Guanajuato, Mexico. My love for cooking began here, spending hours in wood stove kitchens with my mom. Our food was humble, cooked with ingredients right from the fields. I didn’t know this then, but the foods we ate were ancient meals passed down through generations. When I was almost 8 years old we moved to the US; Phoenix, AZ to be exact. After college at The University of Arizona, I moved to New York City. While working in higher education, which I thought was my long-term career, I remembered my passion for cooking. Having a tight budget forced me to start cooking daily and I quickly remembered all of the recipes that I grew up eating. In 2013, I made it onto the cast of MasterChef USA, Season 4. While I didn’t win, I learned a lot through this experience and decided to pursue a career in the culinary world. It was here that I began my work as a private chef and began writing recipes. While I enjoy cooking all cuisines and styles, my specialty is plant-based food specifically Mexican rustic whole foods. Two years ago, and now with a family of my own, I moved back to Phoenix, mostly so that our daughter could be closer to family. Currently, I share my recipes online through my YouTube channel, hold online cooking lessons, and just published a cookbook this summer.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
In the early days of my life, being an immigrant child that spoke no English was difficult. My parents struggled to navigate the American life while keeping our Mexican heritage. Being the first woman in my family to go to college came with challenges too, mostly cultural and career-related. I was balancing keeping an academic scholarship and figuring out the steps after graduation. While most of my peers had parents and siblings who had already gone through college, I was learning all of this for the first time. Moving to New York City, while one of the best experiences of my life, also came with many challenges. I moved away from my family, to a new job, with expensive rents, and into one of the biggest cities in the world. While exhilarating and romanticized, the New York life is not for the weak. Transitioning into motherhood was another challenge, here is where I learned the art of letting go and fully trusting. Making the decision to leave the city and settling back into Arizona has been a challenge too. Yet, we are very grateful to be back with renewed love for this state. Being a content creator has come with many challenges, mostly all the mental struggles of riding the roller coaster that this job entails. Overall, a wide variety of contrast has transpired throughout my life and while unpleasant in the moment, it is what has shaped me into who I am.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
At the moment I am focused on sharing my recipes through my online videos on YouTube and social media, online cooking classes, and my cookbook. I focus on sharing healthy, plant-based recipes, from whole foods, that are vegetable-heavy, and full of flavor. Although I share many different recipes, my specialty is rustic Mexican food that is plant-based. I don’t just veganize recipes, I share Mexican food that is naturally made from plants. My cookbook is a collection of ancient recipes from Mexico that were naturally plant-based before colonization. This is what I am most proud of and what sets me apart from other plant-based chefs: the exploration of the staples of Mexican cuisine true to the ingredients from before the Spaniards came to our lands. A lot of this information is being lost, most people don’t even know that my ancestors were eating a diet that was mostly plant-based and very healthy; a far cry from the Mexican food we see at restaurants today.

The crisis has affected us all in different ways. How has it affected you and any important lessons or epiphanies you can share with us?
I was still living in New York City during this time and life for us in the city was very different than life in Arizona. Since the city was locked down for so long, I decided to make the best of the time we had. I was busy in my apartment testing recipes, feeding healthy food to my family, and trying new hobbies. This was actually when I began to share recipes on YouTube after some years off while raising my daughter. These new recipes came with a big emphasis on health due to the lessons of that time. It was also when the online cooking classes came to fruition. Different groups of people were looking for online activities and I began to offer online cooking lessons. These lessons are something that I enjoy because I get to teach someone how to make a delicious meal, while they are in the comfort of their kitchen. Overall, I learned how important our mindset and health are in life, we can fall into the pit holes of fear or make the best with what we have even in the worst of times.

Pricing:

• Cookbook Hardcover: $49.95
• Cookbook ebook: $19.99

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.adrianaguillen.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amdvadriana
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpfYkV1bZOClncCtwUN26FA
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@amdvadriana

Image Credits
All images by: R. Adrian Davila