Between Two Worlds: Monti Carlo’s Spanglish Story

For Monti Carlo, being “between worlds” was never just a figure of speech. Growing up as a Puerto Rican girl in Houston, she learned to navigate two cultures, and questions about where, and how, she belonged. 

In her cookbook, Spanglish, Monti traces that journey through food, family, and the experiences that shaped her. She shares her story of becoming a single mom to finding her way onto the MasterChef stage, building a career in television, and eventually making her way to the James Beard red carpet.

But this conversation goes beyond Monti’s impressive career. It’s about identity, belonging, and the freedom that comes with embracing every part of background. Today, she is proudly Puerto Rican, proudly Spanglish, and unapologetic about both. Her story, and her food, are a celebration of what can happen when the spaces between cultures become a place you can truly call home.

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Transcript

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[00:00:08:00 - 00:00:20:15]
Sylvia
 It's Hispanic Heritage Month, and I can't think of anyone better to profile someone who celebrates her culture with so much pride. Monti Carlo traces her life through her new cookbook, "Spanglish." She writes about growing up between two

[00:00:20:15 - 00:00:27:04]
Sylvia
 worlds, trying to figure out where she belonged, becoming a single mom and then finding her way onto the main stage

[00:00:27:04 - 00:00:32:18]
Sylvia
 of MasterChef and to a television career that eventually took her to the James Beard

[00:00:32:18 - 00:00:37:17]
Sylvia
 red carpet. But what stayed with me most about this interview is where she is now,

[00:00:37:17 - 00:00:49:11]
Sylvia
 completely at home with who she is. Proudly Puerto Rican, proudly Spanglish, and unapologetic about both. This is her story.

[00:00:54:04 - 00:00:57:12]
Sylvia
 Monti Carlo, welcome to Sephiroth with Sylvia. How are you?

[00:00:57:12 - 00:01:02:01]
Monti
 I'm fantastic. Thank you so much for having me, Sylvia. It's so great to see you.

[00:01:02:01 - 00:01:02:09]
Sylvia
 I

[00:01:03:12 - 00:01:19:21]
Sylvia
 am so excited to have you on. And, you know, we're kind of launching off with your cookbook, "Spanglish," which I love. Look, I have notations in here, Monty. I have been studying and I absolutely love this, especially because

[00:01:21:03 - 00:01:27:12]
Sylvia
 what is that classic Puerto Rican cookbook that was the only Puerto Rican cookbook you could get for like 20 years?

[00:01:27:12 - 00:01:30:23]
Monti
 Cosina Creola. Cosina Creola. Yes.

[00:01:30:23 - 00:01:58:19]
Sylvia
 Cosina Creola. And I remember buying that, I don't know how many years ago, for my whole family because I was shocked because I found a Puerto Rican cookbook. There was nothing else like it. I have to say the recipes were so complex and hard that half the time I didn't do it. But it just as a Puerto Rican woman to find a Puerto Rican cookbook back in the day was impossible. And now I see more are coming out and I absolutely love your book.

[00:01:58:19 - 00:02:17:18]
Monti
 Thank you. So I'm really excited about the Puerto Rican cookbooks that were out just this year. We had three Puerto Rican cookbooks. We had one by Omie Hopper, who made the New York Times bestseller list, the very first Puerto Rican woman to do so. Amazing. And we also had one by Mia Castro, which was incredible as well.

[00:02:19:06 - 00:02:19:11]
Monti
 Yeah.

[00:02:19:11 - 00:02:33:23]
Sylvia
 And I love that you are mentioning their names and you're promoting them. I noticed that you promoted Omie's cookbook on social media. And I'm like, now that's a real woman lifting up other women. Because this isn't about competition, is it?

[00:02:33:23 - 00:03:16:22]
Monti
 No. No. I mean, Sylvia, come on. It's like you mentioned, there aren't that many of us, you know? It's really hard. And I think one of the things that we need to do is unite. You know, one of the things that I really dislike is when Puerto Ricans on the island try to differentiate themselves from Puerto Ricans in the continental US saying that we're different. You know, we're all Puerto Rican. We all have our hearts and our bloodlines from a very small place. And it's a place that needs our support. United, we stand, divided, we fall. So I'm all about supporting other Puerto Rican creators and making sure that we showcase all of the brilliant talent that comes from our little island.

[00:03:18:16 - 00:03:47:22]
Sylvia
 Yeah, that's fantastic. Well, okay, so let's start with this cookbook because I absolutely love this. When I first opened it, I was expecting the beautiful pictures and I was excited about seeing these recipes. But what I didn't expect is that this cookbook is not just a cookbook. This cookbook is a story and a journey through your life. And wow, that's what surprised me. And that's what made me the most happy and proud for you. Tell me how the idea of Spanglish came about.

[00:03:49:06 - 00:04:12:07]
Monti
 Thank you so much, first of all, for reading the book. You have no idea how many times I interview with people and it's really obvious they've not even cracked the book open. So thank you. One. Two. Spanglish came about because I have a really crazy life story. And I ended up telling my life story on stage in Puerto Rico right after Hurricane Maria at

[00:04:13:13 - 00:05:16:05]
Monti
 a convention for women. And it was for all these women who had lost their businesses in Maria. They were trying to get inspired to keep going. And so I told them my story about how I had lost everything in my 30s. I was facing homelessness with a two year old and how I took a chance and auditioned for a reality show called Master Chef with Gordon Ramsey, who wrote the intro to the cookbook. And my whole life changed. And so I told that story and I'm a very humble person. I did not expect that I got a standing ovation that I did not expect. And then they were like, you should go outside until people want to meet you. So they, you know, I didn't expect anyone to want to meet me. And then I was standing out there for six hours just talking to women about their stories, you know, especially Latina women, right? I mean, we go through it. So it was, I knew I had hit on something and I started writing the book that month.

[00:05:16:05 - 00:05:26:06]
Sylvia
 Oh yeah. And I love his intro. I'm like, Oh my gosh, Gordon Ramsey wrote her forward. That is so awesome. I want to ask you, what is the words? Isn't that cool?

[00:05:28:01 - 00:05:31:17]
Sylvia
 What does the word Spanglish mean to you personally?

[00:05:32:23 - 00:06:13:02]
Monti
 Spanglish to me is more than just the way that we kind of denounce the lack of accomplishments in Spanish, you know, in English, it's more of a lifestyle for me. It's a bridge. It's a bridge between two worlds. And I talk about that a little bit in the book, how when you are from Puerto Rico, but you're raised here in the continental US, you know, you have both feet planted in two very different worlds and you're never really Puerto Rican enough for the island Puerto Ricans and you're never really continental American enough for those people here.

[00:06:14:12 - 00:06:46:22]
Monti
 And so you end up feeling like you're a little lost. And for me, Spanglish is that bridge that puts those worlds together. It's the way that we communicate. If you meet somebody else that speaks in Spanglish, you immediately feel this familial bond because you know that you've been through very similar experiences. So Spanglish to me is so much more than this mangled language. I think a lot of people try to say, oh, they speak Spanglish as if that's a dis, right? But for me, it's a beautiful, beautiful thing.

[00:06:48:07 - 00:06:55:21]
Sylvia
 I love it. You've turned it around and made it a powerful word. Okay, so I'm going to get this right. Your mother is Colombian and your father is Puerto Rican. Is that right?

[00:06:55:21 - 00:07:02:09]
Monti
 Yes, my mother is a Bogota and my dad was born and raised in Puerto Rico in Cabo Rojo.

[00:07:02:09 - 00:07:24:19]
Sylvia
 And tell everybody what happened at the age of six that you moved to Houston, Texas because that's the focus of part one that you have titled a Puerto Rican gets lost. And I love this because you've broken this up into three different parts. You talk about being torn between the two cultures that you felt. So tell everybody what happened when you were six years old.

[00:07:24:19 - 00:07:53:06]
Monti
 Oh, I mean, when I was six, my mother woke my brother and I up, I have a twin brother. And she woke us up very, very early in the morning. She put me in my best Sunday dress, my church dress. And we went on to the airport for the very first time. And we were on a plane for the very first time. And I remember being so jealous that my brother got the American Airlines pin. And I didn't, you know. And my mother gave me... Because he was a boy. I

[00:07:54:07 - 00:07:54:15]
Monti
 know.

[00:07:55:17 - 00:08:00:00]
Monti
 Dudes get all the good stuff. They do. It's just wrong. They do.

[00:08:01:01 - 00:08:01:22]
Monti
 It is wrong.

[00:08:03:09 - 00:08:24:10]
Monti
 My mother gave me some gum to chew and she was crying on the plane and I didn't really understand what was going on. And I remember it was the 70s. No, I think it was it was 81 and they still had planes that, you know, they would drop you off on the tarmac. So you had to go down the staircase. And I remember stepping onto that staircase

[00:08:25:14 - 00:09:09:04]
Monti
 and feeling cold for the very first time. And I remember thinking I was a dragon because when I would breathe out, all of the smoke would come out. And I was like, oh, that's what happens when you fly. You become a dragon. But it was so bizarre for me as a six-year-old to be in Houston, Texas, because it's just so different from the island. And the island, you know, the houses are all these pastel colors. Everything is so brightly colored. There's music everywhere. People talk loud. They talk fast. They talk with their hands. And in Houston, everything was very muted. All of the buildings were either gray or brick colored.

[00:09:10:16 - 00:09:15:11]
Monti
 It was winter, so none of the trees had any foliage. I'd never seen bare trees like that.

[00:09:16:13 - 00:09:57:11]
Monti
 And, you know, we were living in the city in a very bad neighborhood. And so it was constant sirens and police and fire trucks. And I remember specifically one day picking up a shell casing with my brother and not knowing what it was. And, you know, one of the older kids explaining to us, like, oh, it's from a bullet, you know. And it's called a shell casing. And I remember thinking, man, you know, the shells that we used to pick up on our beach, you know, are now shell casings. It's so, it was a crazy, it was not the best. I did not take it well. I did not take it well for a while.

[00:09:57:11 - 00:10:08:02]
Sylvia
 So it was such a shock in so many ways, cultural shock. What convinced your mom to move to Texas? And this is when you were separated from your dad?

[00:10:09:10 - 00:10:19:01]
Monti
 Well, so my father, and I didn't meet my father until I was eight years old. So my mother and my father separated before we were born.

[00:10:20:07 - 00:10:50:05]
Monti
 And we ended up being raised by his parents on a little farm in Bokeh-Rong. When that farmhouse burned down was the first time I actually remember meeting my mother. We were five at the time. And she was married to somebody they divorced shortly thereafter. And she decided to move us to the states because at that time, and, you know, interestingly enough, the stories hasn't changed very much.

[00:10:51:16 - 00:10:59:13]
Monti
 Economically, Puerto Rico was struggling. So she thought we, you know, we would do better stateside.

[00:10:59:13 - 00:11:03:00]
Sylvia
 Yeah, such a common story, isn't it?

[00:11:03:00 - 00:11:07:15]
Monti
 It is, you know, and I think it happens to a lot of the Puerto Ricans that

[00:11:08:18 - 00:11:10:17]
Monti
 come over to the continental US.

[00:11:11:23 - 00:11:21:13]
Monti
 But there's still this huge part of you, you know, on my island. I'm going to cry just talking about it. Don't make me cry, Sylvia.

[00:11:21:13 - 00:11:46:21]
Sylvia
 I know, I know. It's a, it is part of life. And I want to get into that a little more because I love, I love how you talk about that at the end of your book. But so let's talk about, let's go to the recipes in this book, because I think we all have recipes that we grew up with, no matter what your culture is. But there are so many that you love and so many that bring back memories, the smells, the taste.

[00:11:48:05 - 00:11:56:16]
Sylvia
 What made you decide what specific recipes you wanted to put in this book? Because there's quite a few and I'm sure it was hard to narrow it down.

[00:11:56:16 - 00:13:14:15]
Monti
 I know I started out with like 150 recipes, but my editors helped me narrow it down. They really wanted stuff that would be approachable and that you'd be able to find the ingredients at, you know, local grocery stores, Latino grocery stores. And that wasn't too complicated when it came to the preparation. I do work as a chef and so I can get a little complicated in my preparation sometimes, but for them it was really important that it's something that anybody could cook. And then for me, it was really important that the flavors of Puerto Rico were represented in continental American favorites. So I remember the first time I had a Twinkie, you know, and, and, or, or, or I remember the first time I had a Pop-Tart. I'd never had anything like that in Puerto Rico. But I wanted the Puerto Rican version. I wanted a Twinkie that tasted like Puerto Rico. I wanted a, a, a Pop-Tart that had guava in it, you know. I, I, I didn't, you know, it's just what it is. You grow up with these beautiful flavors, but when you don't see them at the grocery store or worse when you see them diminished into nothing at the Latino food aisle or worse, the ethnic food aisle, you know, there's over, we are over 20%

[00:13:16:06 - 00:13:24:17]
Monti
 of, of the country, the Latino community. And I think it's okay for us to have our spices next to the McCormick spices. We're going to be all right.

[00:13:26:16 - 00:13:29:03]
Monti
 It's going to be okay if we have a bowl next to McCormick.

[00:13:30:19 - 00:13:37:17]
Sylvia
 Right. I mean, is there one particular recipe in Spanglish that tells your story, you think, better than any other?

[00:13:39:02 - 00:14:47:15]
Monti
 Um, yeah, I love the Guanabana pound cake. It's a sour sop pound cake. And sour sop is, a lot of people are very familiar with tamarind. They're very familiar with mango, but not a lot of people are aware of sour sop. It is still a little difficult to find, but you can get frozen sour sop in a lot, at a lot of places, the pulp. And I love making pound cake with sour sop because it's acidic and it, it breaks down the gluten strands of, of the cake itself and changes the texture to something very light. Usually pound cake can be very dense, but this aerates the batter and it just creates a very light pound cake. And it just reminds me so much of growing up in Puerto Rico with my abuela Dora, who, uh, I can't believe was raising twins. She was 70 something and had two four year old twins. And you know, in Puerto Rico, my grandmother would give me coffee in the morning with a little milk. Yes, of course. And that's how it was. I mean, can you imagine giving a four year old coffee? Yes. And it's Puerto Rican coffee. It's espresso. It is the real deal.

[00:14:49:13 - 00:14:50:13]
Monti
 I love that.

[00:14:50:13 - 00:14:52:09]
Sylvia
 She was giving... You always joke that you...

[00:14:55:12 - 00:15:02:07]
Sylvia
 So you got espresso, you got a jolt. As if the four year old needs any more energy, right, Moni? I think exactly.

[00:15:02:07 - 00:15:41:18]
Monti
 And then we ended up running around the farm all day long, like lunatics because we were caffeinated. But then every afternoon, she would have me open up her Sarah Lee pound cake. And if you remember the Sarah Lee pound cake comes in that aluminum tin that has a very sharp craggly edges. And so she had arthritis and she would be, it was my job to open up. And I felt so important. I was like, this is my job, you know, and she would give me a butter knife, knife slicer. But I wasn't allowed to talk. That was the one rule. You can do this and we can both have a slice of pound cake, but you were not to say a word because this poor woman, can you imagine?

[00:15:43:03 - 00:15:44:20]
Monti
 Hadn't been put through it

[00:15:46:09 - 00:15:47:15]
Monti
 every day by two twins.

[00:15:47:15 - 00:16:28:07]
Sylvia
 And then she was going through it again. Yeah. Unbelievable. So I have to say, I love the story you tell in the cookbook because it connected. I understood so much of what you said in this cookbook because as a Latina Puerto Rican, I can relate even though there are some differences between us, many, but many alike. And the story you told about the San Cucho and taking that for lunch, because that was always the thing is, you know, here you came, you were in Houston, Texas. The kids were bringing barbecue or potato chips and sandwiches and you were bringing this soup, this yummy, delicious soup. But it really kind of made you stand out as different, didn't it?

[00:16:28:07 - 00:17:04:09]
Monti
 Yeah. You know, it's one of these things where as soon as you open up that Tupperware, the smell, you know, it's going to overpower. And it's delicious. I felt it was delicious, but it was something that, you know, kids can be really mean and especially if they're not familiar with what's happening. So they have their Kraft mac and cheese or they have their bologna sandwiches or, you know, their peanut butter and jelly and their little bags of chips. And I've got this stained yellow Tupperware, you know, stained bright yellow with

[00:17:05:12 - 00:17:33:22]
Monti
 ox tails in it. And I mean, you know, pull out an ox tail. Kids are like, what is this? You know, what are you eating? They haven't seen anything like that then. And, you know, I didn't realize then how special that was. I didn't realize it until I was much older. I think at that point, all I felt was really embarrassed, you know, that I didn't fit in.

[00:17:33:22 - 00:17:58:19]
Sylvia
 And that's one of the things I love today is I don't think young people are as embarrassed as we were. And thank you, Bad Bunny as well for making it really cool to be Puerto Rican right now and to be proud and to wave the flag amongst other things. And I mean, it has changed a lot. This is a great place to take a break and we'll be right back.

[00:18:02:11 - 00:18:34:12]
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[00:18:38:00 - 00:18:51:14]
Sylvia
 So this book takes us through some very difficult chapters for you. Your divorce, your financial struggles, single motherhood, and some of your darkest times. I was wondering how difficult this was for you to share.

[00:18:51:14 - 00:19:12:19]
Monti
 You know, thank you for asking that. It was difficult to share, but one of the things that really stood out to me every time I told my story, because I did go to battered women's shelters and other events for women that had been through a lot to speak,

[00:19:13:20 - 00:19:21:00]
Monti
 was that, you know, it's great to talk about your successes, but people really see themselves

[00:19:22:16 - 00:20:07:09]
Monti
 when you share with them what the hard parts were. So even though it is difficult to talk about, it's something that I knew that I had too. If I was going to be very honest, right, I needed to make sure that people understood that this is where I come from. And you can still create a beautiful life for yourself, no matter what you go through. And a lot of the times, those things that you feel break you. If you're lucky, right, if you work hard, can make you stronger and they can create a foundation for you to build exponentially and become someone bigger and better than you ever thought possible.

[00:20:07:09 - 00:20:25:08]
Sylvia
 Wow, what a great inspiration you are to other women. And, you know, sharing your story, I'm sure, has made you even stronger and has made other people strong as they hear that, "Oh, wow, look what she's done," because all of a sudden you're on MasterChef. So you're not a trained chef. Tell us what led up to that.

[00:20:25:08 - 00:20:32:01]
Monti
 I mean, I was broke. I was so broke. I had just moved to LA after my divorce. But why food?

[00:20:33:01 - 00:21:41:16]
Monti
 Because it was what I could... I mean, so, okay, here's the story. I had just moved to LA about six months prior to go work selling commercials for a podcast. The job fell through. As soon as, like, two weeks into the job, it fell through. So then I didn't have any money coming in. And I stretched what little savings I had for as long as I could. But I knew that if I didn't get some money in, you know, I was literally researching women's shelters in Los Angeles. And my upstairs neighbor said, you know, if you try out for a reality show and you make it on camera, they have to give you $50. And back then, $50 for me, I was living on a $10 a day budget, which included diapers and formula and food. So, you know, $50 was almost a whole week's worth of groceries. And so I was like, "Okay, let's go. I'm going to try out." And so there was 150 auditions for Beauty pageants in this reality show website that he showed me. And there was one the very next day for a show I had never seen called MasterChef.

[00:21:42:17 - 00:23:39:02]
Monti
 The only issue was that I had to bring something with me, a dish that showcased who I was. But I was so broke, I barely had any food in the house. I was living off of coffee, basically. And then we had a pallet of eggs. And I had just purchased some apples for my son earlier that day from the dollar store. And I had some flour, I had some butter, I had a little cream. And so I made an apple pie. And I couldn't, I didn't even have enough apples to make a full-sized apple pie. So I made little muffin-sized apple pies. I had nothing to bring them to the audition in. So I dumped out one of his diaper boxes. I lined it with a towel. And I put these apple pies in this diaper box and strung my dog's leash around the handle so I could carry it to this audition. And I did not have the first, I was surprised when I got there. And there were hundreds of people in line. I had no, I was like, what is this? I had never even heard of this show. Why are there so many people here? I barely knew who Gordon Ramsay was. I just knew that every time I saw a commercial for a Gordon Ramsay show, he was surrounded by fire. That's all I, I mean, that's literally all I knew. And then I'm standing in line for hours and I got hungry. So I sat down and I didn't even bring anything to plate the pie in. I didn't bring utensils or anything. So I started eating one of the pies with my hands. And one of the producers walked by and was obviously repulsed. I'm eating a pie with my hands out of a diaper box. And he was like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And he had me go into this room where I think I was supposed to be the person that

[00:23:40:16 - 00:23:45:14]
Monti
 was like, what are they doing here? Type situation. Like this person does not belong.

[00:23:46:18 - 00:24:05:09]
Monti
 But I ended up making all the producers laugh because I wasn't trying to make them laugh. I just had no idea. They were like, tell us about the five mother sauces. And I had never even heard of a mother sauce. So I was like, the mother sauces, that's what is it? Barbecue,

[00:24:06:10 - 00:24:13:06]
Monti
 ketchup, right? Mayo? No? Mustard? Like I'm like trying to figure out any of the sauces that I know as a mom, you know?

[00:24:13:06 - 00:24:16:05]
Sylvia
 So they were trying to set you up because they thought you were going to fail.

[00:24:16:05 - 00:24:17:18]
Monti
 I

[00:24:19:17 - 00:24:31:09]
Monti
 mean, that's what I felt. I felt like I was going to be the one that Gordon Ramsay's like, what are you doing here? You know, type situation. But Gordon, when he actually when he gave me the opportunity to audition for Gordon,

[00:24:33:07 - 00:24:40:00]
Monti
 at that point, they had told me, we're going to give you the opportunity. You're funny. You don't know what you're talking about, but you're funny.

[00:24:41:10 - 00:25:14:05]
Monti
 We're going to give you a few weeks to figure out as much as you can about food and you'll audition for Gordon and we'll see what he says. So I would spend the entire day reading how to learning how to cook. I taught myself how to cook on dollar store ingredients and trying to create recipes. I couldn't afford a ton of food still. So I was literally making eggs every which way I could and learning how to chop vegetables and then making soups out of them. And then when it came time to audition for Gordon, I didn't want him

[00:25:15:09 - 00:25:22:20]
Monti
 to see anything but how Puerto Rican I really am. I really wanted to show him Puerto Rico, you know?

[00:25:23:23 - 00:25:46:18]
Monti
 I made him a pastelon, which is sort of like a shepherd's pie, but it's made with sweet plantain. And in the mints, instead of a regular ground beef mint, I made picadillo, which is this beautiful beef mints with olives and capers and prunes and raisins.

[00:25:48:04 - 00:26:08:16]
Monti
 And that's what I served Gordon Ramsay and I was so nervous, Sylvia. I didn't realize that your elbows could shake when you were nervous. My elbows were shaking, my knees, I could barely stand up. I was holding on to the counter because I was scared if I let go of the counter, I would collapse.

[00:26:09:23 - 00:26:30:12]
Monti
 But he gave me an apron and changed my life forever. I still can't watch that moment when he gave me the apron. There's a YouTube video of it and I still can't watch it without absolutely losing it because that is the exact moment my entire life changed.

[00:26:30:12 - 00:26:36:18]
Sylvia
 Wow. But that was determination. It was probably the mother lion in you too, right? You had to support this child.

[00:26:36:18 - 00:26:40:01]
Monti
 Yeah, I mean, think about, you know,

[00:26:41:02 - 00:26:42:08]
Monti
 mom life is

[00:26:43:14 - 00:26:54:01]
Monti
 hard, but mom power is much bigger and better. I don't think it matters what comes at you when you're a mom. You're going to do whatever it takes to make sure that you're taking care of that kid.

[00:26:54:01 - 00:26:58:11]
Sylvia
 Yeah. And so what was that experience like for you?

[00:26:59:12 - 00:27:00:04]
Sylvia
 Because

[00:27:01:05 - 00:27:20:09]
Sylvia
 I mean, the fact that you basically are self-taught and that you're dealing with one of the biggest names in the food world, Gordon Ramsay, who has a reputation, although I think we all know better, of being really hard ass and tough, very tough. What was that experience like for you and how did it change you?

[00:27:21:10 - 00:27:49:08]
Monti
 I mean, the experience was the most insane. I was so scared of Gordon when I first met him. I was terrified. I mean, at that point, by that point, I had already watched a few episodes and realized, "Oh my gosh, she's kind of mean." But he was really the kindest and so supportive and he really took time to make sure that he encouraged me.

[00:27:50:08 - 00:28:01:13]
Monti
 All of the judges did. And I really, he saw something in me that I didn't see. And I remember, I'll never forget making carrot soup for him

[00:28:02:23 - 00:28:07:10]
Monti
 and realizing that he was so in love with this carrot soup that I had made.

[00:28:08:13 - 00:28:14:10]
Monti
 And me all saying, "Oh my God, I can't believe I made something that Gordon Ramsay is fawning over."

[00:28:15:13 - 00:28:17:07]
Monti
 Right. You know, and

[00:28:18:11 - 00:28:38:15]
Monti
 thinking maybe there's something to this. Maybe this is something that I can do. And for me, it was not just an experience that showed me that I could be a great cook and could make a living, but it showed me that even though my divorce had broken me and even though I had faced a very difficult and dark time, it was an experience that showed me that

[00:28:39:20 - 00:29:05:08]
Monti
 that darkness was going to be the birthing of a whole new life for me, a whole new way to make it through. And it ended up being one of the most transformative experiences of my entire life because it really showed me that no matter how difficult things get, and things were very dark for me then. I wasn't just going through a divorce. My best friend had just been shot and murdered.

[00:29:07:03 - 00:29:11:07]
Monti
 And, you know, my kid had gone through a very difficult

[00:29:12:14 - 00:29:35:20]
Monti
 fight with MRSA, which is a flesh-eating bacteria. So all of my savings were gone fighting for his survival. I mean, he was in and out of the hospital for many, many months fighting MRSA. And I really, you know, it was a lot of really terrible things all at once, not being able to find a job when you're a single mom. It's very difficult to get people to hire you

[00:29:37:00 - 00:29:53:18]
Monti
 or to get people to hire you to where it makes sense for you to, you know, have a nanny or someone or daycare to pay for that expense usually don't make enough. So for me, that experience really showed me that you can take yourself from a very dark place

[00:29:55:09 - 00:29:58:19]
Monti
 to a much better place if you just put your head down and work.

[00:29:58:19 - 00:30:25:19]
Sylvia
 That's what you've been doing. And I love in the book you talk about that you were asked to define the kind of food that you cooked, and that wasn't easy for you. That wasn't an easy answer for you because, you know, you were still wrestling with bridging this gap. But did that question kind of force you to rethink differently about your own identity? I'm curious because that did cause a little, you know, made you think a little harder about how to answer it.

[00:30:25:19 - 00:30:44:14]
Monti
 It did make me think. And it took me many years actually to figure out what my identity was on a plate because when I first put myself on the plate, I did do a traditional Puerto Rican dish. And I think that's the first step is realizing that those flavors of Puerto Rico, that's your DNA. You

[00:30:45:15 - 00:30:45:22]
Monti
 know,

[00:30:47:07 - 00:32:01:18]
Monti
 tostones and cafe colao and guava, soursop, all of tamarind, these are all flavors, cilantro, recao, that, you know, literally take me to a time and place on the island every time I smell them or taste them. But then I also have to consider that I spend so much of my childhood on the continental US, you know, so in Houston, Texas. And I do think about the first time I had barbecue and the first time I had baked beans and the first time I had chocolate cake. Those also are very much a part of my DNA. And so learning to cook with the flavors of Puerto Rico and mash them into these recipes that are very common comfort food recipes in the continental US really ended up defining exactly who I am to a tea. And it felt like everything just clicked once I got there with it because I can't, I'm not the most Puerto Rican, Puerto Rican, I can't dance salsa, you know, I speak Spanglish. I really, I wish I could speak fluent Spanish. I understand it, but like a lot of nozawa kids, we understand it, but we can't speak it, you know.

[00:32:03:08 - 00:32:09:22]
Monti
 So for me, Spanglish is really definitive of this third culture that I live in. I love that.

[00:32:09:22 - 00:32:32:10]
Sylvia
 I love that. So I'm looking at this beautiful cookbook. I love the illustrations. I love the pictures. Part one, a Puerto Rican gets lost and then you've got all these recipes. Part two, a Puerto Rican gets torn into, and I just love how you merged all of this into your stages of life. And then we've got part three here, which

[00:32:33:18 - 00:32:56:12]
Sylvia
 is a Puerto Rican learns to speak Spanglish. And then at the very end of the book, Monty, I did not expect this. Your conclusion. And that is under the title conclusion, never mind the food police. And I was reading this and I thought, boy, this, this is something, this woman is coming from such a sense of pride.

[00:32:57:13 - 00:33:19:18]
Sylvia
 But also a little bit of activism in the back of this here, talking about the island and the lack of electricity and the constant loss of electricity and how people question whether you are really are Puerto Rican enough. Why was that important for you to put in this book? I loved it, but I could see some people might say, oh, Monty, that's a little controversial.

[00:33:21:01 - 00:33:52:21]
Monti
 Thank you for loving it. And it is a little controversial, but I, you know, I, I wanted people to know a lot of times when I say I'm from Puerto Rico to people, they really don't understand what that means. You know, they don't really understand what's happening on the island. They see it as a vacation spot and we are so much more than a vacation spot. They don't understand the level of poverty on the island. They don't understand that, you know, over 40 percent of our population lives beneath the poverty line.

[00:33:53:21 - 00:34:02:23]
Monti
 They don't understand that we have to pay insane taxes on our food because of the maritime laws.

[00:34:03:23 - 00:34:50:10]
Monti
 You know, there's a lot going on in Puerto Rico that people don't know about. It doesn't get any coverage in a significant way, even when it comes to the water crisis that we're currently going through and have been going through for many, many, many, many years now. And in the last six, seven months, it has become increasingly worse where people, you know, that are older people, 80 years old, that have to go and find water and then carry jugs to go back to their homes. There are people that, you know, there's a lot of older people in Puerto Rico that don't have family to help them because so many people have left the island. There's just so many hard realities of living on the island that people don't consider.

[00:34:52:00 - 00:35:18:12]
Monti
 And so I do understand why there are some Puerto Ricans that, you know, get upset if we try to merge our flavors with, you know, continental American cuisine. And I keep saying continental America because Puerto Rico is America. Puerto Rico is American, too. And I don't say the mainland because for us, our island is our mainland, you know? So

[00:35:19:17 - 00:35:35:23]
Monti
 I try to be very careful with my phrasing because it is important for me that I do write and say things correctly. For my friends and my family that do live on the island and are currently going through so much struggle.

[00:35:37:02 - 00:36:22:02]
Monti
 And that's why it was important for me to call it out. And it was also important for me to, you know, let people know that it doesn't matter if you don't dance salsa or if you don't speak Spanish fluently. It doesn't matter if you weren't born on the island and, you know, you do have ties to the island through, you know, it's something that's in your blood. People can't take your identity away from you with words. Your identity is inside of you. And, you know, any time that a Puerto Rican meets another Puerto Rican in the continental U.S., it is instant family. It's like, you know, like it's this whole thing, as I'm sure, you know, Celia, you know? And the way that we celebrate this island, especially you in Chicago,

[00:36:23:03 - 00:36:52:17]
Monti
 the way we celebrate this island with so much love and fervor is something that cannot be taken away from us simply because we're no longer living there. So it was important for me to just really push back on some of that because I do think that it's important that we not be ashamed of our reality of who we are. I'm never going to speak Spanish fluently, and I'm perfectly okay with that. I'm still very Puerto Rican. Thank you.

[00:36:52:17 - 00:36:56:01]
Sylvia
 Let me ask you one more question here

[00:36:57:18 - 00:37:18:19]
Sylvia
 because I was reading that last chapter and I was like, yeah, yeah. And I was like, oh, Monty, she's getting spicy. She's like speaking her mind. And I absolutely love that. And it made me think also, I felt like because I said this is so much more than just a cookbook, I felt like this book had to be a cathartic experience for you. Am I right?

[00:37:18:19 - 00:37:21:03]
Monti
 It was very cathartic.

[00:37:22:11 - 00:37:37:04]
Monti
 It felt like a weight was lifted. I think I had never really taken the time to really figure out where I stood. I just knew that it bothered me when someone was like, oh, tu re planquita,

[00:37:38:14 - 00:37:40:05]
Monti
 or whatever that you know.

[00:37:41:05 - 00:38:42:19]
Monti
 Or, you know, like whenever they would sort of diss what I was making, saying it wasn't, I mean, I specifically talk about a chef in the book that once tried to diminish me because I hadn't made my grandmother's recipe for her red beans and rice on a television show. And they were like, well, you can't call that Puerto Rican because we don't make our beans with olives. And it's like, you don't get to take away, you know, what makes this recipe mine and my grandmother's because there's some like imaginary rule for you about what makes food Puerto Rican. Food is a language, and like any language, it evolves. You know, we're not all running around talking old English, you know, we have new English. So there's a reason for that. And food is the same way. It needs to be reflective of your experience. And

[00:38:43:20 - 00:39:04:02]
Monti
 I just think the food police, I think the food police is silly. I think anyone that's running around yelling about authenticity doesn't understand that authenticity is a personal journey, authentic to who? Authentic to somebody that lived 1800 years ago, or authentic to the person that created it.

[00:39:04:02 - 00:39:24:00]
Sylvia
 Well, the recipes in here look so yummy. I can't wait to try them. There is a recipe that I expected to find in here and it's not in here. And I wanted to ask you about that because every family has their own perfect version because every family is better than the other. Can you guess what I'm going to ask you about? No.

[00:39:24:00 - 00:39:27:11]
Monti
 What is it? What is it? I de coquito. Coquito.

[00:39:31:09 - 00:40:00:07]
Monti
 I love it. Coquito, que vejo? Oh my goodness. That is a very good point. I did not have coquito in there because I made a video about coquito once and people were. Oh, yes. They went crazy because I was using canned coconut milk and because I had an egg yolk in it because egg yolks helped to emu-sify. So the, you know, the ingredients don't separate.

[00:40:01:12 - 00:40:04:07]
Monti
 And they were like, how dare you?

[00:40:04:07 - 00:40:32:00]
Sylvia
 Oh, I know. I don't think Puerto Ricans are more passionate about anything except coquito at Christmas time. And for those of you who don't know, because now it's more well known years ago, a lot of people didn't know what it was. But it's our version. I don't really like to call it this, but a Puerto Rican eggnog. But we are obsessed with it and every family does it differently. And you are a brave soul to actually do a video on coquito because I can only imagine the backlash that came with that.

[00:40:33:01 - 00:40:47:13]
Sylvia
 And you have to know, every Christmas, my kids make fun because I'm obsessed with perfecting my coquito every year because I always give it out as gifts. Do you make it with real coconut? Oh, no, I don't make it with real coconut. Who has time yet?

[00:40:47:13 - 00:40:54:18]
Monti
 That's what I was, that's what I said. I'm like, we don't have a bunch of palm trees and coconuts up in this house. Exactly.

[00:40:56:01 - 00:40:57:15]
Monti
 That's not our reality.

[00:40:57:15 - 00:40:59:07]
Sylvia
 But it's still delicious. It is.

[00:41:00:16 - 00:41:09:01]
Sylvia
 Darn it. It's still delicious. Well, OK, tell everybody what you're working on these days and what's coming up for you in the future. Maybe another cookbook or a book?

[00:41:09:01 - 00:42:00:05]
Monti
 I am actually working on this book was actually supposed to be a memoir. And when I sold the book, I sold it as a memoir. And Simon and Schuster said, first, we're going to put out a cookbook and then we're going to put out your memoir. So I'm working on my memoir, which has no published date just yet. And I'm working at the Atlanta Journal Constitution as a food and dining editor. I'm currently working on the Atlanta 50, which is our best 50 restaurants in Atlanta. I've gained 30 pounds in three months. I'm eating at like four restaurants a day. It's a lot of work. Yes. But it's been wonderful work. And, you know, I'm also working on a trilogy, a romance trilogy. We'll see.

[00:42:01:10 - 00:42:01:20]
Monti
 We'll see.

[00:42:01:20 - 00:42:37:09]
Sylvia
 Wow. You are busy, lady, always busy. And I have to say, the last time I saw you was on the red carpet at James Beard, always looking beautiful because we can't you know, we got to let people know you're very involved with the James Beard Awards as well. Yeah, it's funny how you went from, you know, just kind of being a home cook to all of a sudden you're on MasterChef and you're hosting these shows. And and now you work with James Beard. You have turned your life around. And I can't wait to see where you go in the future. Marnie Carlo, what a pleasure to talk to you. I hope to see you in Chicago again very soon.

[00:42:37:09 - 00:42:50:18]
Monti
 I absolutely I can't wait to see you again for the James Beard Awards. And Sylvia, it's just such an honor speaking with you. And I'm so humbled that you would even consider talking to me about my book and that you read it.

[00:42:50:18 - 00:42:54:17]
Sylvia
 Thank you. It's so good. I was so proud of you.

[00:42:54:17 - 00:43:10:13]
Sylvia
 So thank you for for talking and everybody. The name of the book again is Spanglish. And I said more. It's more than a cookbook. It's a journey of Monti Carlo's life. And the recipes are amazing. OK, Marnie, I hope to see you soon. You take care, my friend.

[00:43:10:13 - 00:43:33:02]
Sylvia
 Bye. Thanks for listening to Supper with Sylvia. A shout out to my team produced by Jennie Waters. Music, video and audio post production by Donnie Cutting. Head of strategy, marketing and partnerships. Iliana Blasdell.