How This Chef Uses Puerto Rican Comfort Food to Connect a Diverse Group of Home Cooks

The kitchen has always been Reina Gascón-López's happy place. "I've been cooking since I was maybe 9 or 10 years old," she says. "My mom always gave me small tasks in the kitchen when I was younger, and then the older I got, the more hands-on it became."

At first, Gascón-López was just helping her mom cook rice in their Charleston, South Carolina home; eventually, she graduated to cooking habichuelas, traditional Puerto Rican stewed beans, and later prepping food for big family gatherings at her grandparents' home in Puerto Rico. As much as she loved cooking, Gascón-López didn't pursue a career in food — at least not right away. Her parents wanted a brighter future for their daughter, so Gascón-López got her college degree and took a job in the corporate world.

The problem was, she was miserable. Tired of dreaming about a life spent in the kitchen, Gascón-López scrapped her more traditional career path to go to culinary school. "I'd rather be stressed over a job that I find fulfilling," she tells Thrillist. Inspired by her favorite food memories, in 2017, Gascón-López created The Sofrito Project, a free recipe site packed with her elevated takes on comfort food. "Sofrito is essentially the foundation of Puerto Rican cooking. It's a seasoning base that we use in most of our savory dishes," she says. "I decided to name the blog after it because I consider it a labor of love." She also recently launched her own line of spices with Spice Tribe, and is planning to work on a cookbook proposal next.

Though Gascón-López finds inspiration everywhere, her Puerto Rican heritage and culture has perhaps the largest impact on her culinary worldview. The Sofrito Project is full of recipes for classic Puerto Rican dishes, with Gascón-López's signature twist — think coquito lace cookies, arroz con pollo, or a jibarito burger with tostones buns. Still, Gascón-López admits that some of her favorite recipes are the simplest, like Puerto Rican rice and beans. "Something about it is so nostalgic for me, and it's one of those super awesome struggle meals," she says. "If I don't feel like cooking, or if I'm feeling lazy or if I'm stressed out, I will always have a little pot of rice on the stove."

Gascón-López is conscious of always framing recipes as her personal take on a classic, rather than the end-all, be-all version of that dish. Since she's based in South Carolina, she doesn't always have access to all the ingredients she might have in Puerto Rico —plus, she recognizes that her experience with a dish might not be the same as someone else’s in her community. "Food is such a personal thing," she says. "People get pretty up in arms if they see a dish that's something that they grew up eating and then they look at it and it doesn't look like something that they ate or that their grandmother cooked."

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Puerto Rican cuisine isn't the only food culture that inspires Gascón-López's recipes, either. You can trace the influence of her Southern upbringing in recipes like green tomato relish, chicken and dumplings, and lowcountry shrimp and grits, while other dishes bear evidence of her admiration for Japanese, Korean, and other food cultures. Gascón-López recognizes that she is not the authority on another culture's food — whether that's ramen or risotto — so she's careful never to cross the line of cultural appropriation. "I only cook things that I'm familiar with or that were taught to me from people in those cultures," she says, noting that she often points her readers toward other chefs to find the more authentic version. "I don't think there's an issue when it comes to creating dishes or sharing recipes from other cultures, as long as it's done from a space of respect."

Gascón-López's thoughtful, respectful approach to food ties back to her cooking philosophy. When she's in the kitchen, she moves with intention, staying in the moment as she chops vegetables, minces herbs, or stirs a pot of simmering stew. "I'm a big believer in food being kind of like a love language. I love cooking for other people," Gascón-López says. But if the best food is cooked with love, the reverse is also true: "If I get in a fight with somebody and then I try to cook, it's curtains," she says with a laugh. "The food's not going to turn out good."

And that does happen — even for a professional chef. Oversalting a sauce or burning a pot of rice can be discouraging for home cooks, but Gascón-López says that sometimes, mistakes just aren't that deep. "If something doesn't work out, it's like, ‘hey, is it still edible? Then eat it.’ If it doesn't turn out exactly how you want it, that's okay, just try again. It's just food," she says. "Whenever you start something new, you're always going to be a beginner. There's nothing wrong with that."

After all, Gascón-López's willingness to try something new — without knowing whether she would succeed — was key to pivoting from the corporate world to her dream job as a chef. Though it hasn't always been easy, she says she'd do it all over again if given the chance. "Life is too short. Do what makes you happy and it'll work out the way it's supposed to," she says. "If you're aligned with what you're supposed to be doing and what you love doing, I don't think things will be in the way when that happens."