A little of Julia Child; a dash of Martha Stewart

It is tempting to describe Josefina's career by saying that she was the
Julia Child of Mexico. But Josefina's career is important in another
way, one that makes her accomplishments look more like Martha
Stewart's. You can read about Josefina as a multitasker and a a self-made woman who created a nationwide empire from her kitchen table, in this article published by the award wining website Leite's Culinaria.

RECIPE: Quesadillas Potosinas

Josefina visited San Luís Potsí, the agriculturally rich state in central Mexico, frequently to teach cooking classes and raise money for local church projects. This recipe comes from her book Cocina de San Luís Potosí (circa 1957) and was tested by Saveur as part of the feature article that I wrote for the magazine in December 2005.

Don’t let the name quesadillas fool you. These little stuffed-masa wonders require more work that a folding-a-tortilla-with-cheese operation. But once you discover the taste of ancho chile in the masa and the tangy queso fresco you will be willing to start a new batch right away. This recipe, by the way, makes around 14 quesadillas.

3 cups lard or vegetable oil
2 large white onions, peeled and chopped
16 serrano chiles, stemmed and chopped
2 tomatillos, husked, rinsed, and chopped
1 lb. queso fresco, crumbled
2 ancho chiles, stemmed and seeded
4 cups instant corn masa mix (Maseca brand)
1 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 chorizos
1/2 cup shredded queso añejo


1. Heat 1/4 cup of the lard in a large skillet over medium heat. Add onions and cook until translucent, 8–10 minutes. Add serrano chiles and tomatillos and cook until soft, about 5 minutes. Transfer onion mixture to a medium bowl. Add queso fresco, mix well, and set aside to let filling cool.

2. Put ancho chiles into a small bowl, cover with 2 1/2 cups hot water, and set aside to let softened, about 20 minutes. Put chilies and soaking water into a blender, purée until smooth and transfer to a large bowl. Add masa, salt, baking powder, and 1 tbsp. of the lard or vegetable oil and mix with your hands until well combined. Divide dough evenly into 14 balls. Drape plastic wrap over the base of a tortilla press. Put 1 dough ball at a time in center of press, cover with plastic wrap, and close press to flatten into a 6” disk. (Alternatively, put dough between 2 pieces of plastic and roll out with a rolling pin.) Set plastic-covered tortillas aside.

3. Unwrap a tortilla and put about 1/3 cup of the filling in the center. Fold tortilla into a half-moon shape and press edges together to seal. Repeat process with remaining tortillas and filling.

4. Melt remaining lard in a large deep skillet over medium-high heat and heat until hot but not smoking. Add chorizo, fry until browned, 5—7 minutes, and set aside. Working in batches, fry quesadillas until lightly browned on each side, 1—2 minutes per side. Drain quesadillas on paper towels as done. Slice chorizos.

5. Serve quesadillas garnished with queso añejo and with chorizo.

Who was Josefina?

Abraham González Street in downtown Mexico City has seen better days. Stores selling auto parts line the busy road. Groups of men flash counterfeit stereos at potential customers driving by. On every corner, children play next to silver pyramids made of wheel rims while their mothers sell warm tamales out of baskets to pedestrians rushing to work. Across the street, run-down condos still show signs of their once-amazing interior patios, their sturdy cast-iron gates, and their beautiful facades. They share their old glory with shabby fondas (eateries), old bodegas, and an Internet cafe that hangs cotton sheets from floor to ceiling as partitions separating one computer from another. However, the most emblematic sign of the decline of this street is the two-story building, number 68, which splits its space between an auto-parts business and a sketchy massage parlor. On the side of the auto-parts business the storeroom still shows signs of the space that once housed Mexico’s premier cooking academy, while vinyl-covered beds on the side of the massage business have erased all traces of the woman who once lived inside those walls and ran the cooking school for 40 years: Josefina Velázquez de León.
It is hard to imagine that this was Josefina’s home and the heart of a cooking enterprise unparalleled in Mexico. But it was in these rooms that Josefina spent most of her life, teaching during the day, writing cookbooks at night, and planning journeys to every corner of the country to research and collect traditional family recipes, indigenous ingredients, and centuries-old techniques. It was also here that Josefina started her own imprint, Ediciones Josefina Velázquez de León, a one-woman enterprise that published over 140 titles of Mexican and international cuisine.

Josefina Velázquez de León was born in 1899 in Aguascalientes, a state 260 miles north of Mexico City. She was the oldest of four daughters of Juan Luis Velázquez de León and Maria Peón Valdez. When Josefina turned 11 years old, political mayhem broke out in Mexico and thus the Mexican Revolution, a conflict that tore the country apart from 1910 to 1921, became a turning point in the lives of the Velázquez de León family. By its end, the family had lost their hacienda. That same year, Josefina’s father died of heart failure. Years of hardship followed for the Velázquez de León and Josefina approached her 30th birthday unmarried and devoted to help her mother and sisters. However, life changed for Josefina when she met Joaquin González, a businessman 20 years her senior who she married against her family’s wishes. The matrimony was short lived and Mr. González died 11 months later. As a widow, Josefina gained independence from many of the rules and restrictions that ruled the lives of Mexican women in the 1930s, and she would use her cooking skills and passion for teaching to become a savvy businesswoman: by 1933, Josefina opened the “Academia de Cocina Velázquez de León” (Velázquez de León Cooking Academy) and began writing food columns in local magazines. A few years later, she published her first book, Manual Práctico de Cocina y Repostería (A Practical Manual of Cooking and Cake Confectionary), and soon she was in charge of her own imprint. By the end of her life in 1968, Josefina had become a respected culinary personality, working side by side with the government in nutritional programs, starring in her own radio and TV shows, and drawing the culinary map of Mexican cuisine.