Zoraida Márquez. Photos: Chris Emeott
How a chef’s childhood passion evolved into a flourishing catering and home chef venture.
Thanksgiving was the first holiday Zoraida Márquez celebrated after moving to the United States from her native Venezuela in 2003. And while she was excited to see what America was like, Thanksgiving didn’t exactly make the best first impression. “It was freezing cold, and I had married into a typical Minnesotan family, so there was turkey with gravy, some sort of cranberry jelly and a green bean casserole,” Márquez says. “I had never seen anything like this before. It was culture shock for sure. Everything was very rich, very bland or very weird.”
Twenty years later, Márquez has become a Thanksgiving fanatic. “I love it all now,” she says. On her Thanksgiving table, one can find wild rice cranberry casserole, cranberry sauce, homemade macaroni and cheese and an organic turkey, stuffed with onions, garlic, sage, rosemary and thyme and basted with a mixture of orange juice and white wine. “It’s my favorite meal to cook,” she says.
This organic turkey is the star of Márquez’s Thanksgiving table. It is stuffed with onions, garlic, thyme, rosemary and sage. The turkey is basted with a mixture of orange juice and white wine.
That’s saying a lot now that Márquez has made a career out of cooking. The 43-year-old Edina resident started her own catering business eight years ago. Zoraida’s Kitchen is the culmination of a longtime dream. “I love cooking food and making people happy,” she says.
Zoraida’s Kitchen offers in-home personal chef services, private party/special events catering and weekly meals. “I want you to clean the plate, and I want you to ask for more,” she says. “That’s my goal.”
Drawn to the Kitchen
Márquez’s love of food and cooking can be traced back to her childhood, growing up in the Andes Mountains of Venezuela. She was born and raised in Merida, a city that sits on a plateau in the Chama River valley in the northwestern part of the country. “It was a very organic childhood,” she says.
Surrounded by a bevy of grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings and cousins, Márquez says most of her life was oriented around family and feeding them. “I was always watching my grandmothers cooking,” she says. “Breakfast, lunch, dinner. Every day. They would literally live in the kitchen.”
Márquez wanted to be right there beside her grandmothers as they plucked fresh fruits and vegetables from the garden, maybe a chicken from the yard, and whipped up delicious meals for the family. “I would always ask them what they were doing,” she says. “I had this little notebook, and I started writing down their recipes.”
And when her grandfather fell ill and the family was busy traveling back and forth to visit him in the hospital, Márquez took over the family meals. She was about 10 years old at the time and had to prepare lunch and dinner for her four younger siblings. “I loved being in charge of the cooking,” she says.
Márquez in the kitchen with her sisters, Gabriela Márquez (left) and Yustin Marioly Márquez (right).
A New Life in Minnesota
Márquez attended college at the University of Los Andes in Merida. There, she met and fell in love with an American man from Minnesota. “It was a beautiful love story for a few years,” she says. They married, and in 2003, they moved to the U.S. Her daughter was 4 months old at the time. “I was very attached to my family,” she says. “It was really hard to say goodbye.”
Once they settled in Minnesota, Márquez started attending business school at the urging of her husband, but she couldn’t ignore the call of the kitchen. Márquez and her first husband ended up divorcing, and she decided it was time for a radical change. “I discovered a whole new me,” she says.
Márquez started working at restaurants, first Al Vento in South Minneapolis and Arezzo in Edina. She wasn’t hired to cook but always found herself drawn to the chefs. “Finally, I said I’m going to do what makes me happy,” she says. She enrolled in The Art Institutes International Minnesota. “I wanted to actually study cooking,” she says.
As she put herself through culinary school, Márquez continued to work in the field, including stints at a catering company in Minneapolis as well as Heidi’s in Uptown under celebrated chef Stewart Woodman.
Homemade macaroni and cheese is comfort food at its finest. The creamy and cheesy side dish is perfect for any occasion.
Mouthwatering Word of Mouth
Márquez eventually remarried to Dwight Bonewell. He and her daughter from her first marriage, Maria Anderson, encouraged Márquez to follow her cooking dreams. So, she started putting the word out that she was starting her own catering business. Before long, a friend hired her. Since then, word of mouth has been the primary driver of her business with friends telling friends and keeping her busy in the kitchen. “I love to do parties,” Márquez says. “Private dinners are my favorite. They get my adrenaline pumping.”
Márquez says she has received amazing support from the community since launching Zoraida’s Kitchen. “I feel so thankful,” she says. “I keep working for amazing people.”
While she would love to have a restaurant of her own someday, working in various restaurants over the years and talking to friends with restaurants has convinced Márquez of one thing: “It’s a lot of work,” she says. “I’m content, happy with what I have right now. I love spoiling my clients.”
The hallmark of Márquez’s cooking is using the freshest ingredients possible. “Simplicity for me is key,” she says. “I want to bring my childhood with me every day.”
Márquez doesn’t limit herself to Venezuelan cuisine, although she is always happy to prepare a traditional dish from her home country. Márquez has a broad palate and offers a diverse menu with a variety of cuisines from Mediterranean and Thai to Mexican and Italian. “I love to travel a lot,” she says. “Anthony Bourdain is my hero.”
Márquez loves to bring the flavors of her travels home and incorporate them into her cooking. “I want to master Indian cuisine next,” she says.
“I hope people see who I am through my food,” she says.
Zoraida’s Warm Wild Rice Cranberry Salad With Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Slivered Almonds
Zoraida Marquez of Zoraida’s Kitchen is one of those chefs who never really follows a recipe. “People tell me what they want, and I just put it all together,” Marquez says. However, for our readers, she’s put together a simple wild rice side dish.
“This is one of my favorites because it is healthy, and it can be served the next day as a cold salad,” she says. “You can also add arugula and feta. So delicious.”
- 3 cups wild rice pilaf, cooked
- 2 cups sweet potatoes, diced and roasted
- 1/4 cup cranberries
- 1/4 cup slivered almonds
- 1/8 cup chives
- 1 yellow onion, diced
- 1 red pepper, diced
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1/4 cup basil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 3 Tbsp. butter
- ½ cup white wine
- juice of 1 lemon
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Melt butter and sauté onions until they are soft. Add garlic; sauté for 2 minutes, and add in peppers. Let cook for 2 minutes. Add in wild rice, sweet potatoes, cranberries and chives, and sauté for 3 minutes. Add white wine; let cook for 2 minutes before adding lemon juice, basil, parsley and olive oil. Remove from heat; add almonds, salt and pepper. Garnish with more parsley and almonds before serving.
Zoraida’s Kitchen
612.655.1355
Instagram: @zoraidaskitchen
