Marcela Valladolid does things her own way.
And that's not just about her cooking. From a scandalous affair to going sober,
keep watching to see why she's here for more than just tacos and ceviche.
Valladolid was born — and
attended school — in San Diego, California. But she was raised, and had close family ties, right
across the border in Tijuana, Mexico. She grew up proud of her heritage but was shocked to discover
the perspective of Mexico held by her peers. Valladolid recalled with Parents Latina magazine,
"They would visit our home in Tijuana and say, 'Oh my God,
this is actually really beautiful. This is not like Taco Bell!' And so that became my mission,
to show what we've got and all that Latinos contribute."
In the years since, she has made traditional
Mexican dishes and customs accessible to anyone through her cookbooks,
TV appearances, social media and wildly popular Zoom lessons. As she told the outlet,
"For me, being Mexican is the best thing you
could ever be in the world. […] My goal has always been to show that."
After high school, Valladolid
enrolled at the Los Angeles Culinary Institute. And during a night out on the town, she crossed
paths with a stranger who would one day become her life partner. She and talent agent, Philip Button,
reconnected years later after divorcing other people. The chef told the Baltimore Sun,
"I've known Philip half my life, but we had both changed so much.
We had to get to know each other all over again. It was a beautiful full circle moment for us."
Today, the couple lives in Chula Vista, California, with their two kids,
as well as the chef's son Fausto from her first marriage. And it's clear the
honeymoon stage is far from over. According to one of her Facebook posts about Button,
"Whenever I tell him I bet he never thought we'd end up together with 3 kids,
a carrot cake-eating dog and a house in Chula Vista his response is always, 'Of course I did.'"
Back before she was
blissfully in love with Philip Button, Valladolid married Fausto Gallardo,
a millionaire environmental political activist. They were wed once in 2000,
divorced four years later, then remarried in 2012 before divorcing again the next year.
But in 2013, Valladolid was also embroiled in a sizzling tabloid scandal with her
married co-host on the "American Baking Competition," Paul Hollywood. Hollywood
admitted to cheating on his wife with Valladolid, confessing to BBC Radio 5,
"​​I did have an affair in America with
my co-judge ... it was the biggest mistake of my life."
"Paul is such a — he's a professional." "I wanna take you home with me tonight."
Hollywood and his wife reportedly continued working on their marriage,
which ended in divorce in 2019. The fallout also led to Valladolid and her husband's final split.
The "American Baking Competition" was canceled after just one season.
Straight out
of culinary school, a young Valladolid was snapped up by
top food magazine Bon Appétit. It was a role even the most seasoned editor would envy,
but Valladolid wasn't even old enough to legally drink. She told the Wall Street Journal,
"We had to buy ingredients for all of the recipes we were testing
and somebody always had to go with me because I could never buy the alcohol for the recipes.
I had to take one of the senior editors with me to buy the wine."
Despite the learning curve, she says the 4-year gig was the, quote, "best job
I ever had." Her dad was even so proud, he reportedly carried a copy of the first issue
with her name on the masthead to show off. Honing her writing and editing skills no doubt proved
useful when publishing her best-selling cookbooks years later; including 2009's
"Fresh Mexico," 2017's "Casa Marcela," and 2019's "Fiestas." Valladolid's first children's edition,
"Cocinando on Cook Street: A Collection of Mi Familia's Recipes," hits shelves in 2022.
Because Día de Muertos falls close to Halloween,
it's often confused for the Mexican version of the American holiday. But for Mexicans,
it's a day to celebrate the lives of loved ones who have passed on. Valladolid's mother's
death in 2008 had a profound effect on the chef, inspiring a religious reawakening and
prompting her to take the day seriously ever since. She has even spent weeks decorating
her home and preparing an altar for her mother. She explained to the San Diego Union-Tribune,
"I felt disconnected from that part of my culture and those opportunities felt opportunistic and
inauthentic, so I began to really study and understand what Día de Muertos truly is about.
Little by little, the tradition has now become one of the most important days of the year for me."
She shares the significance of the holiday with her followers,
as well as festive tips and recipes to mark the special day. And as she told Yahoo,
"It is a beautiful reminder for me and my children of all the rich and
incredible history we carry and need to pass on."
Bethenny Frankel wasn't the only future star to compete on 2005's "The Apprentice:
Martha Stewart." Valladolid was also vying for the chance to work for America's number
one domestic diva. Valladolid made it to fourth place before being eliminated,
but says it was her "biggest career moment yet." She told TV Guide back then,
"That's my goal in life, to have my own show on the Food Network,
featuring Latin and Hispanic food geared toward the American household."
"I need to pinch myself right now — I just, I can't believe this is happening."
Years later, she reflected on the lessons she took away from her time
on the show with Stewart, telling Forbes in 2020,
"I learned from her that authenticity is key.
She had a huge issue with a contestant using the phrase 'fake it 'til you make it' and fired her
that same episode. She taught me that you can't fake being a master of your craft.
Observing her it was clear that she had a clear purpose; to teach."
Following her stint on "The Apprentice: Martha
Stewart," Valladolid hit the ground running. She starred on a cooking series for Discovery En
Español and soon caught the attention of the top brass at the Food Network. They eventually tapped
her to host her own show, "Mexican Made Easy." Valladolid picked recipes she grew up with as a
child, breaking down the dishes step-by-step for novice cooks. She explained to San Diego Family,
"I adapt those recipes for my viewers. I want to make cooking authentic Mexican
cuisine approachable and easier for families on this side of the border.
My recipes deliver freshness and flavor without forcing home cooks to track
down hard-to-find ingredients or spend hours at the stove."
She went on to join the co-hosting crew of the Food Network's daytime talk show, "The Kitchen,"
along with Jeff Mauro, Sunny Anderson, Geoffrey Zakarian, and Katie Lee. She also made numerous
appearances on other network shows including "Iron Chef America" and "Throwdown with Bobby Flay."
​​For a whopping 14 seasons of "The
Kitchen," Valladolid smiled, laughed, and cracked jokes while bantering with her chef co-stars and
performing cooking demos. But it appears drama was brewing behind the scenes. Valladolid abruptly
announced her departure from the series in 2017, explaining in an Instagram post that
the commute between her West Coast home and the New York City-based studio had taken its toll.
Four years later, however,
Valladolid opened up about the real reason for the switch-up. Describing being stifled,
intimidated, and unable to present herself authentically, she told Parents Latina,
"When you're with executives from the most powerful network on culinary TV,
you don't think you can fight back on anything. It took me a
really long time to find my voice. I wanted freedom to do things my way."
In 2021, Valladolid revealed
that she had given up alcohol, explaining that her family — including her older son
Fausto and younger kids Anna and David — had inspired the decision. She shared with People,
"I stopped drinking because of my kids. I never thought that I'd be in a stable relationship,
because I wasn't in one for the first 35 years of my life. But seeing Fau grow into a young man,
I really wanted to show him that I could do it and wanted it for myself."
But even so, she assured her fans that she would still be offering up mouth-watering
cocktail recipes — she just wouldn't be joining them in a toast. In a May 2020 Instagram post,
she shared a hibiscus and fresh chamomile concoction, writing,
"I make drinks I just don’t drink ‘em. Tried this one tho
and HOLY SMOKES. Micheladas are out. Jamaicadas YOU ARE IN."
In 2015,
then-presidential candidate Donald Trump's remarks about Mexican immigrants sparked
outrage from a huge number of people — Valladolid included. And as a result, she began using her
platform to speak out against hate speech and racism. As she told Buzzfeed, she felt it was
her duty to advocate on behalf of the millions of Mexican-Americans she felt she represented.
She has since become a passionate advocate, shedding a light on the harsh realities of
parents separated from their children at the border. She's also worked with fellow chef
Jose Andres' World Central Kitchen to help feed immigrants. She urged her followers to ignore
political rhetoric and hopes that one day, people will be able to pass seamlessly back and forth
between Mexico and the United States as she has been fortunate enough to do her whole life. Being
able to live in that way, she has said, has shaped who she is as a chef and what she stands for.
"Anything that celebrates Mexican heritage and Mexican
culture, I am absolutely a hundred percent for."
While promoting her 2017 cookbook,
"Casa Marcela," the chef had an interaction with a fan that left a significant impression on her.
She has even described it as an "A-ha" moment. As she shared with PopSugar, Valladolid says a woman
approached her who had seen the chef's son David easily navigate between English and Spanish with
Valladolid on TV. The woman tearfully confessed how she wished her own parents — who had stressed
the importance of assimilation, and raised her to speak only English — had done the same.
For Valladolid, it was validation of an important parenting choice she had
already made: to raise her children in a bilingual household. The star explained,
"It was a humbling moment that reminded me of how fortunate I was to be raised
in a very safe and supportive community and by extremely heritage-proud parents.
I hugged the woman and we cried. I promised that I'd continue instilling this pride in my kids,
because it's not just a language. It's so much more. It's what comes with it."
As she has shared with several outlets, Valladolid also says she was approached by hundreds of others
at the event expressing similar sentiments, which, to Valladolid, is always, quote, "mind-blowing."
Just as it did for basically everyone on
the planet, the pandemic forced Valladolid to get creative when it came to pivoting her career while
quarantining. But when she and her sister Carina launched their co-hosted Zoom cooking classes,
they became a runaway sensation. Valladolid says she resisted the idea at first, but has since
embraced the imperfect, informal nature of filming from her home kitchen, as opposed to a big-budget,
highly-produced TV studio. As she told Mashed in an exclusive interview,
"I love that they see that it's just a messy, you know it’s a messy process, and it's not perfect."
She even went on to teach a lesson to one particularly famous student and her
extremely massive fanbase: Selena Gomez. On the Gomez-led pandemic HBO Max cooking show,
"Selena + Chef," Valladolid guided the actress and
pop star through the preparation of some delicious-looking enchiladas and mole.
And also connected her with their shared Mexican heritage. As Valladolid later told Mashed,
"With Selena, I loved doing the show because it was like no holds barred, make tortillas from
scratch, get all of the traditional ingredients like chilis for mole. Don't skip on any of the
parts of the recipe, don't streamline it. It was like, teach her how to do this right.."
Valladolid said the opportunity to be on the show "meant everything to me."
"I know you're not shy about saying when something
isn't good." "She's not."
"I'm not. This is incredible." "Oh yay!"
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