When my daughter was born, my dad asked me what I was planning on doing to stay connected to my heritage. I knew I did not want to go back to venture capital or technology investing. It was not my passion. He at the time had three restaurants in Venezuela. He said, “Why don’t we consider opening a restaurant here? A Venezuelan restaurant?” I thought that was pretty interesting and… ignorance is bliss.

When you cook it’s a very easy way of explaining heritage.

It’s been beautiful, to me, because it is reflective of my heritage. It has impacted my children’s understanding of my heritage and they feel very connected because it’s very material. When you cook it’s a very easy way of explaining heritage.

My daughter absolutely loves to cook, and in third grade, she had to do a book project, and she created a cookbook, called “The Simple Art of Cooking.” It was a kid teaching a kid how to cook. In her introduction she said that she loves cooking because her mom and her grandpa started a restaurant and that she knows what she knows because she has worked at the restaurant. Then she calls out some recipes that she says, “They’re impossible to explain because they can only be learned when you work in a family that cooks together, and if you want to taste it, just go to the restaurant; don’t try to make it. My mom makes the best.” — May 10, 2018 • Photo by Loraine Terrell