Elsie Ramos learned to love pernil and tostones in her mami’s kitchen in el Barrio. She grew up to have her own family, with Ray Umpierre and their six strapping boys (now college-bound and college grads), and has a rewarding career as office manager in a Manhattan private equities firm. 

In 2005, Ramos auditioned as a contestant for Fox Television’s reality show, Hell’s Kitchen.  She made it to finalist, and although not the contest winner, her practical approach to cooking and her dynamic personality made her a definite hit with the audience. 

 The positive feedback from the audience and her firm encouraged her to attend culinary school.  She has now published Elsie’s Turkey Tacos and Arroz con Pollo: More than 100 Latin-Flavored, Great-Tasting Recipes for Working Moms, a compilation of her favorite recipes, with cooking tips and timesavers for busy people.  

Ramos visited Mi Apogeo and spent a lively afternoon sharing the highlights of her life, the secrets of her cooking, and that sofrito that makes life so worth living.

Mi Apogeo:  What are your roots.

Elsie Ramos:  I was born in Hoboken NJ, raised in El Barrio, 118^th Street and Lexington Avenue, in the heart of the Barrio, best place in the world.  In my high school years we moved to the Bronx, and lived there pretty much the rest of my life, until we moved to NJ six years ago, when our boys started to grow up, and it was time for a change.

Mi Apogeo:  What were the party foods in your home?  

Mi Apogeo:  What were the party foods in your home? 
Elsie Ramos:  It’s always the pernil, el arroz con gandules, escabeche, el coquito!   Every Thanksgiving, the menu is always the same.  My mother used to host it.  Over the last seven years, since I’ve had a home, I host it, and I have thirty to forty people in my house.

What’s comfort food for you?

Elsie Ramos: 
The funny thing about my mother is that we were four sisters, and my mother never, ever encouraged us to come into the kitchen, look and help.  She was a hands-on cook.  Maybe once in a while, mira, pela esto, [“here, peel this”]but if you did it incorrectly, she never asked you again [laughs].  I would watch her, watch the technique, but it wasn’t until I became the mother of twins, that I thought, I don’t want to raise my kids on fast food, so it was through trial and error that I became a homemaker.  I remembered the techniques, because every time I’d go to my tía’s house, or my mother’s house, or abuelita’s, siempre habia ese caldero [there was always that pot], so I remember the sofrito [basic Caribbean seasoning sauce], all that.  I remember first making rice that you could throw on the wall and it would stick, so it was really trial and error!  [laughs]  So I tell everybody, anybody can become a cook.  The first time it may not be perfect.  I was not told how to cook by a recipe, it was just trial and error.  Eventually you get it. 

I commend those women who stay at home, but today I do use recipes.  You don’t have to be a slave to the kitchen.  I highlight that in my book.  Most people have this conception that if you want to cook something nice it has to be difficult.  No!  A nice pot of arroz con habichuelas [rice and beans], un arrocito con gandules, con un bistecito al lado [rice and peas, accompanied by a minute steak], you can’t get better than that! [laughs].  And it doesn’t take a lot of time.

Mi Apogeo:  In your website and in your book, you have a lot of other Latino influences, not just Puerto Rican or Caribbean.  How did you come to that?
Elsie Ramos:  I love Mexican food, I love Chinese food, I love Italian, I like it all.  It’s mixing the traditional way of making it, only I make it Spanish because I add my own ingredients.  Mexican food is one of my favorites.  The idea of using leftovers to make a meal is great, like using rice and beans to make stuffed burritos.  I love Italian food, I love baked ziti and lasagna, but you know, I put sofrito in it, spice it up a bit.  I made my own Chinese rice.  I had leftover rice and two pork chops, and there were five of us then.  So I mixed in the soy sauce, and a scrambled egg, and had to get the beansprouts, and in fifteen minutes we had fried rice.  My boys were so excited!  The best part is, you make what you can, and what you love.

Mi Apogeo:  At some point, you had to make the difficult decision to go to culinary school.  You had a family, you had a job, how did you come to that decision?
Elsie Ramos:  The culinary school course was a gift from my managers.  When I came back from the show [Hell’s Kitchen], they had heard I had never gone to culinary school, and I had been one of the finalists, so they said we are so proud of you!  I took the course, it was amazing.  They’ve been incredibly supportive.  They let me go away for six weeks to film the show.  I’ve been pretty lucky.

Mi Apogeo:  Tell us more about your experiences at the French Culinary Institute.  You already knew how to cook, obviously you were very accomplished.  How was this different?
Elsie Ramos:  Well, the experience was very different.  First of all, it’s French cooking, and the one thing I did take from it is the technique, a more formal way of cooking, restaurant style, things had to be a certain size and shape, a way of serving, everything very formal, and you know, I was very informal, because I was cooking in my home.  You have to have your tools ready.  And, the secret of butter!  Butter makes everything better!  [laughs]  Not necessarily healthy for you, but it does make everything better!  I learned about tools I had never used, different ways of cooking fish, like I had never cleaned a whole fish myself, so mostly techniques, which was really, really helpful. Another thing I learned, because French food is so rich, was about portions.  It was a great course.