Why you should trust me: I trained at the Culinary Institute of America and spent four years cooking at high-volume restaurants in Mexico City, including Pujol and Quintonil. I've been developing recipes professionally for six years, with bylines in Bon Appétit, Saveur, and Serious Eats. I specialize in Mexican and Latin American cuisines where peppers are not a garnish — they are the foundation.
What I do at KnowThePepper: I write the culinary sections of our pepper profiles, develop substitution ratios by actually cooking with both peppers side by side, and create the cooking method recommendations. When we say this pepper works great in mole, I have made the mole.
My kitchen essentials: A molcajete my grandmother gave me, dried guajillos always in stock, and a cast iron comal seasoned by 10,000 tortillas. I also keep a shelf of 30+ hot sauces, mostly for research purposes.
Favorite pepper to cook with: Pasilla de Oaxaca. Smoky, complex, and completely underappreciated outside of Mexico. It transforms any mole negro.
Least favorite food trend: Putting Carolina Reaper in everything for the shock factor. Superhots have incredible flavor when used properly — drowning a dish in capsaicin misses the point entirely.
CIA trainedCooked at Pujol and QuintonilBon Appétit bylines30+ hot sauces on the shelf
