Ofelia Anorve:
Owner, Mamá Tila Catering
“You learn from them and they learn from you.”
Ofelia is a Seattle business owner and 2018 graduate of the Project Feast apprenticeship program
Ofelia, left, teaches 2020 Project Feast apprentice Ruth how to make chicken tinga.
Seattle is shrouded in its first shivery drizzle of fall, but under the awning at Ofelia Anorve’s stall on the Pike Place Market Pavilion, the griddle is warm and the homemade tortillas are starting to puff. Ofelia scoops up mildly spiced chorizo and potatoes that melt together inside quesadillas and tucks a trio of tamales oaxaqueños – chicken tamales wrapped in banana leaves – into a takeout box with extra queso fresco, salsa verde and salsa rojo. (“The rojo is spicy!” she warns with a smile.) Biting into a quesadilla fresh off the griddle feels for a moment like being transported to the warmth of summer.
Ofelia wants her food to take Seattle diners on a journey of authentic Mexican cuisine – from Yucatán to Oaxaca to her home state of Guerrero. “When I got here in 1999, I was looking for fresh and authentic Mexican food and I couldn’t find it,” she says. Ofelia worked for years as a housecleaner, but always loved cooking her favorites – pozole, tamales, estofado – for family and friends, who would ask, “Why don’t you make food to sell?”
In 2018, after almost two decades of housecleaning, Ofelia decided to pursue her passion for food and open a catering company. But she soon realized she needed to learn how to operate a food business. “I didn’t know the laws,” she says. “I never knew the proper temperatures. I needed to learn more techniques. I needed to be faster!”
Ofelia learned of Project Feast while taking English as a second language classes at Highline College and she enrolled in the apprenticeship program in 2018, joining a class of students from Ethiopia and elsewhere in Mexico, as well as kitchen staff from Ukraine and Iraq. “You learn from them and they learn from you,” Ofelia says. “I learned how to make hummus. I love hummus! I learned to make the injera [Ethiopian flatbread], like big tortillas, and roll it up with the hummus inside.”
AFTER THE APPRENTICESHIP, Ofelia had the confidence to fully invest in her Mamá Tila’s Catering company – named for her mother, Domitila, who was known in their small Guerrero town for cooking for the biggest gatherings: weddings, baptisms and quinceañeras. “That was my pleasure, to eat her food,” Ofelia says. “I loved to eat the pozole, tamales, the mole rojo. In my town, no one knew the mole verde.” The original Mamá Tila was especially renowned for her mole rojo.
Most of Ofelia’s recipes come from her mother: “I’d watch when she was cooking.” After leaving home, she would call Mamá Tila to ask about ingredients. But it was actually Ofelia’s husband who first encouraged her to cook. “He cooks with a lot of spice,” she says. “I tell him, ‘Don’t put in a lot of spices because not everyone likes it spicy.’ He’ll say, ‘If the food is good, everybody eats.’”
In her catering business, Ofelia tailors spice to her clients’ tastes, and she’s always happy to offer a salsa on the side to turn up the heat. She wants people to know how fresh and diverse Mexican food is. Her menu includes cochinita pibil (braised pork) from Yucatán, mole verde and beef estofado from Mexico City, and tamales wrapped in corn husks from Mexico City, as well as the tamales oaxaqueños that are traditional to Guerrero as well as Oaxaca. “The banana leaf has a special flavor,” she says. Ofelia also offers pozole in all the colors of the Mexican flag: rojo, verde and blanco (pozole without tomatoes, tomatillos or chilies).
But she only makes her mother’s mole rojo for very special occasions. “American people don’t know how hard it is to make the mole,” she says. “It’s so many ingredients! If you want good mole, you need to stir for two or three hours because that’s the secret.”
In 2019, Ofelia saw her catering business pick up after committing to weekly farmers markets – though the expense of buying a trailer and equipment ate into her profits. In the busiest times, she had little time to sleep, and her family worried she was working too hard. “I love the business, but it’s a lot of work,” she says.
Then, 2020 brought new challenges. When the coronavirus pandemic shut down farmers markets and catering opportunities, business for Mamá Tila’s slowed to a trickle. Ofelia has found some work this summer contributing to the South King County-based Food Innovation Network’s meal boxes and making her popular tamales for takeout orders. But she’s worried about the future. “This situation has gone on a long time,” she says. “It is very concerning.”
Whenever the opportunity arises, Ofelia is quick to pass out her business cards, and people who want to order her fresh Mexican dishes can email her at mamatilaevents@gmail.com. And she still dreams of someday owning a restaurant to pass along to her two daughters and two sons. “For this experience, from Project Feast, I say thank you,” she says.
– Interview and writing by Denise Clifton, Tandemvines Media
Calabacitas a la Mexicana
Ingredients
- 1 small onion, diced
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 3 tomatoes, diced
- 1 green jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
- 6 small Mexican zucchini, diced
- 2 cups corn, fresh or frozen
- 1 tsp oregano
- 1/4 tsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp salt
Instructions
- 1. In a saute pan over medium heat, cook the onions until translucent (about 3 minutes). 2. Add the garlic and cook another 2 minutes. 3. Add the tomatoes and jalapeño, and cook 2 minutes. 4. Add the zucchini, corn and oregano, season with salt and pepper, and cook for 15 to 20 minutes. Serves 8-10 people.
Picadillo
Ingredients
- 6 tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, minced and divided in half
- 1 small onion, diced and divided
- 4 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 1/2 lb ground beef
- 3 carrots, diced
- 3 potatoes, diced
- 1 cup peas
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- 1. In a blender combine the tomatoes, 2 garlic cloves and 1/4 of the diced onions. This is your tomato-garlic sauce. Set aside.
- 2. In a saucepan over medium heat, heat oil and then add 3/4 of the diced onions. Saute 2 minutes. Add ground beef and remaining garlic. Cook for 7 minutes.
- 3. Add the tomato-garlic sauce and cook 3 to 4 minutes. Add potatoes, carrots and peas.
- 4. Add salt and pepper to taste, and cook over low heat for 20 minutes.
- 5. Serve over rice.
- Serves 4
Chicken Tinga
Ingredients
- 3 lbs chicken breast
- 3 1/2 large onions
- 8 Roma Tomatoes
- 1 tbsp chipotle sauce
- 2 cloves garlic
- 1 tbsp oregano
- Salt to taste
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
- Tostadas, shredded lettuce and sour cream to serve
Instructions
- 1. In a pot, boil the chicken breast with 1/4 of an onion, salt, and garlic until the chicken is soft. Remove the chicken from the broth, reserving the broth. Shred the chicken and set aside.
- 2. In a blender, add 2 cups of the reserved chicken broth, tomatoes, chipotle sauce, 1/4 of an onion, garlic and oregano. Blend and set aside.
- 3. Slice the remaining 3 onions. In a saucepan, add the vegetable oil and saute the onions for 5 to 7 minutes. Then add the shredded chicken and the sauce from the blender. Add salt to taste. Let it cook for 15 to 20 minutes at medium/low heat.
- 4. To serve, spoon onto a tostada, add some shredded lettuce and a dollop of sour cream, and enjoy! You could also serve it over rice, in a taco, in a burrito, the options are endless!Serves 4-6
Arroz con Tres Leches
Ingredients
- 2 cups rice
- 3 cups water
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 2 cinnamon sticks
- Lemon peel
- 3 cups full-fat milk
- 1 cup condensed milk
- 1 cup evaporated milk
- 1/3 cup raisins
Instructions
- 1. Combine the three milks in a saucepan over medium heat and cook one hour.
- 2. Wash the rice in warm water. In a second pot, boil 3 cups of water with salt, cinnamon and lemon peel 3 minutes. 3. Add the rice and cook 10 to 15 minutes. 4. Add the cooked three milks and stir for 10 to 15 minutes. 5. Add the raisins and salt and pepper to taste.
