Guest Speakers

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Guest Speaker: Education Is Power

28 July 2014

And with power comes responsibility, says this Hoboken chef, restaurateur, author, businesswoman and Latin cuisines historian.

Dr. Maricel E. Presilla, a culinary historian, author and chef specializing in the foods of Latin America and Spain, reminded graduates of The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) they are following a tradition of excellence, and with it carries responsibility. Presilla was commencement speaker at the college’s Hyde Park, N.Y., campus on July 3.

“Keep your sharp knives at hand, but hold onto the wooden spoon,” Presilla told 61 recipients of associate degrees in culinary arts and baking and pastry arts. “A wooden spoon becomes one with the food. It also represents the collective wisdom of grandmothers and home cooks everywhere.”

Presilla is president of Gran Cacao Company, a Latin American food research and marketing company that offers cacao educational programs and premium heirloom cocoa beans. She is also chef and co-owner of two restaurants—Cucharamama, featuring artisanal South American cooking, and Zafra, a pan-Latin restaurant with an emphasis on the cuisine of Cuba, both in Hoboken, N.J. In 2010, she opened Ultramarinos,a gourmet Latin American market, bakery, chocolate shop and cooking atelier in Hoboken. 

“If I had it to do all over again, I would be a graduate like you are, from The Culinary Institute of America,” said Presilla, a native of Cuba who immigrated to the United States in 1970. “You are standing on the shoulders of giants. You are the heirs of the tradition of this accumulated wisdom and you have a responsibility. Make your kitchen a place of wonders. Make your kitchen a pleasant place. Don’t ever forget that education is power and now you have the power to change the world.”

A member of the CIA’s Latin Cuisines Advisory Committee, Presilla has been a presenter at the college’s Latin Flavors, American Kitchens and Worlds of Flavor conferences. In 2013, the most recent of her five books, Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America (Norton, 2012), won both the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ cookbook award for General Subject Book of the Year and the James Beard Foundation Award for Cookbook of the Year. She won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Mid-Atlantic in 2012.

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