Mexican mom shares her ‘secret’ homemade recipes on TikTok: ‘You don’t have to be an expert’

Jenny Martinez is TikTok’s favorite Latinx mom.

Martinez shares traditional Mexican recipes with her 1.5 million followers — everything from her dad’s famous shrimp cocktail to her easy churros

The lovable mother got her idea to post on TikTok from her daughter. After shooting a few short videos, things took off quickly. 

“The following morning my phone was blowing up and we couldn’t believe it that one of my videos had gone viral,” Martinez told In The Know. 

She learned traditional cooking from her mother growing up. While some people say that creating videos is a ton of work, she insists that she was already cooking the food anyway. For Martinez, it’s not just about making mouthwatering meals, like conchas con nieve or chuletas abobadasit’s about preserving Mexican culture. 

“For me, it’s not — it’s not that I’m giving away my secrets,” Martinez told In The Know. “To me, it’s just sharing my knowledge to the younger community so we can continue our culture, the authentic Mexican recipes that our grandmas, our mothers passed down to us.”

Martinez believes food brings people together and can unite the people within a culture while educating others outside of it. Some of her followers haven’t heard of the ingredients she uses but her explainers in English make such barriers fade away.

“The whole Mexican cooking, it’s just something that connects us together as a community and as Mexicans,” Martinez told In The Know. “Now that I see that in social media that everybody wants to learn and everybody wants to keep on the traditions, that’s what I like. That’s what I want to see.” 

The mom’s recipes are great for budding chefs at all levels. She advises to not get so hung up on trying something new and just go for that recipe you want to make. 

“You don’t have to be an expert in cooking. Just open the fridge and start following my recipes. I try to make them as easy as possible,” she said.

But at the heart of it all, Martinez is really passionate about her craft.

“I honestly see the beauty in food and in the cooking,” Martinez told In The Know. “I mean, it’s kind of like an art at the end of the day. When you’re plating it and when you see everything just combining. When you see all of those ingredients, that aroma coming out, to me it’s just beautiful.” 

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