The Familia Kitchen Mission

To honor and celebrate abuela cooking, we’re building a national collection of our Latino community's favorite, traditional family recipes. Join us!

¡Hola! Meet Our Team

Familia Kitchen was founded in Chicago by Latinas hungry for home.

kim caviness bio

Kim Caviness grew up in Santurce, Puerto Rico to a Puerto Rican mom and American dad, and loves cooking for family and friends. Kim’s favorites: arroz con pollo, maduros, garlicky tostones, her mom’s flan, her sister’s coquito, and her cousin Anjie’s pozole verde, avocado serrano salsa and homemade tortillas. She learned to cook from her mom and “El Libro,” Cocina Criolla, the Boricua cooking bible. She is the editor of the Familia Kitchen Cookbook. Kim brings 20+ years content experience, including as chief content officer of three U.S. content marketing agencies, working for Condé Nast Traveler and WebMD to her role as Familia Kitchen Co-Founder, CEO & Editor in Chief.

lisa hunt stevens

Lisa Hunt Stevens grew up in San Diego and is a world traveler who has been to more than 18 Central and South American countries and Caribbean islands. She knows her way around a taco de pollo asado (please pile hers high with queso, guac and cilantro), green enchiladas and chilaquiles. Lisa brings 20+ years in advertising, sales and partnerships including Kraft Heinz My Food and Family, O, The Oprah MagazineFood Network Magazine, and Bon Appétit to her role as Familia Kitchen Co-Founder, Chief Business Officer.

Brittany Abdool, fractional CMO, Familia Kitchen

Brittany Abdool, founder of Ona Media Company, Marketing & Communications Agency, is central to our team’s braintrust, guiding us as our fearless fractional Familia Kitchen CMO. Brittany and her family are happiest exploring the comida corners of Chicago and one of their favorite neighborhoods is beautiful Pilsen, a historically Mexican community and home to some of the city’s best tacos and carnitas.

Melissa Paniagua Tempest

Melissa Paniagua Tempest, a mom and wife who lives in Virginia, oversees Familia Kitchen’s social media strategy and runs our Instagram and Facebook channels. Her family is from Nicaragua, which means that plantains have been a staple on the dining table all her life. Especially yellow platanos with brown sugar and butter, a family recipe she will pass on to her young daughters. Melissa is Familia Kitchen Digital Strategist.

Emily Gonzalez, Familia Kitchen social media engagement and events manager

Emily González is a proud Cuban/Mexican American who lives in the vibrant city of Chicago. ”My father’s journey began in Mexico, and at the young age of 6, he embarked on a life-changing move to the United States. My mother’s family relocated from Cuba to the U.S. when she was just 6 months old. When it comes to Mexican cuisine, tamales hold a special place in my heart. When it comes to Cuban food, my top dish is rabo encendido. It’s truly heartwarming how we collectively savor these family recipes, reflecting on the enduring value of our family and the precious memories we carry with us.” Emily is Familia Kitchen Social Media Engagement and Events Manager.

Isabelle Banin

Isabelle Banin is a writer who enjoys reporting on comida latina for Familia Kitchen. A native New Yorker, Isabelle knows her way around great food and loves to write about what she eats and cooks. Isabelle’s favorite recipes include arroz con pollo, any kind of flan, empanadas (especially with beef), and tamales. She also loves all the variations of salsas and pico de gallo sent in by Familia Kitchen homecooks, especially if they are spicy. Isabelle is Familia Kitchen Assistant Editor.

Nuestra Misión

We realized there was a need to create an authentic treasury of the Latino community’s favorite family recipes and abuela cooking—grandmother cooking. It’s how families really cook for ourselves and the people we love when we’re at home.

Nothing fancy or fussy. No extra ingredients. Just honest and súper-delicioso cooking as it really happens in our kitchens. Beginning with recipes from our good-cook moms who got recipes from their good-cook moms—our abuelas.

We are a food and familia community for everyone who wants to cook your way home on weekends, every so often, every day—or maybe you just like to read recipes. We’ll showcase your favorite family dishes, stories, techniques, tips, photos and how-to videos of cocina y comida traditions.

We’re also for everyone, no matter where your family came from, who loves Latino food.

Let’s cook our way home—together.

The 20 Latino Places We Cook Our Way Home to

Familial Kitchen map of Latino food
As seen in our Familia Kitchen Cookbook, here is our FK map of the 20 Spanish-speaking places we cook our way home to—plus a look at the origin of Latino food’s mix of defining ingredients.

Familia Kitchen’s Recipe Contests

Each month we’ll post a contest for one traditional dish. Everyone with Latino roots in the United States and a go-to family recipe is invited to enter.

Contest details: Once you submit your family’s recipe and family food story for a contest, Familia Kitchen’s editors will go through all the entries and hand-select the most intriguing top 3.

What does intriguing mean? Good question. It’s a combo of:
most delicioso
most traditional and authentic
most essential list of ingredients and techniques
most interesting
most cookable—it demands to be made!

FK editors will then cook and photograph the top trio of recipes and post them as that month’s contest Familia Kitchen Contest 3 Finalists.

This Is Where You Come In

Everyone in the Familia Kitchen community is invited and welcome to vote for your favorite recipe in each contest. The recipe that receives the most user votes becomes that month’s Familia Kitchen contest winner.

We’ll hold recipe contests 12 times a year—one per month, supplemented with articles and/or videos about each dish’s history, lore, techniques and/or ingredients. We celebrate the first 12 winning recipes with profiles and family-food stories of the cooks who submitted them in our Familia Kitchen Cookbook, plus other content platforms.

The Familia Kitchen Cooking Our Way Home Grand Prize

At the end of each calendar year, the 3 recipe contest finalists who receive the most votes will be entered to win that year’s The Familia Kitchen Cooking Our Way Home Grand Prize. You and everyone in our Familia Kitchen community will be invited to vote for the year’s número 1 contest recipe. The winner is awarded a prize trip to their Latino homeland. The Grand Prize includes: flight + 2 nights’ hotel + 1 delicioso meal at a great local restaurant there.

Abuela Approved

Every recipe and food story shared by our community of homecooks and published here at Familia Kitchen celebrates our deep respeto for abuela cooking. These are the loved Latino dishes passed down generación to generación, simplified and perfected over time to become family favorites.

Familia Kitchen is advised by our Council of Abuelas on Latino culinary traditions and best practices. Our abuelas review recetas and advise us as we cook and write about each of our 20 Latino destinations, making sure that we only share dishes, preparations and ingredients that are authentic, trusted and delicioso.

abuela approved Familia Kitchen

Investing in Our Communidad

Familia Kitchen believes in the power and connection of our communidad. Somos más fuertes juntos. Each year, 5% of annual Familia Kitchen profits will go to local programs helping feed the 9 million hungry Latino children, adults and seniors, more than 1 in 6 in the U.S.

¿Listos? Join Us at Familia Kitchen

Están invitados to join the Familia Kitchen community in our ambitious and exciting mission: to collect, curate and celebrate our traditional culinary heritage by creating the most complete and authentic online treasury of U.S. Latino family recipes and food stories.

Here’s how:
Help us collect your favorite family recipes and food stories.
• Sign up for our Familia Kitchen Newsletter.
Email us with ideas for a recipe contest starring your Latino homeland’s signature dishes.

Let’s inspire the next generation to learn how to cook our favorite time-honored Latino recipes—and pass them on to their grandchildren.

Together, we’ll honor and preserve nuestra cocina Latina and abuela-cooking traditions. Gracias for su apoyo, comunidad Familia Kitchen!

See you in the kitchen.

Contact Us

To suggest a Latino dish, recipe category, article idea, or just say hi:
[email protected]m

For advertising:
[email protected]

For inquiries about Familia Kitchen’s curated kitchen and table products in La Tienda or to submit your product for consideration:
[email protected]

Familia Kitchen LLC
[email protected]

Familia Kitchen Team

Kim Caviness, Co-Founder, CEO
and Editor in Chief
[email protected]

Lisa Hunt Stevens, Co-Founder,
Chief Growth Officer & President, Familia Kitchen Publishing
[email protected]

Brittany Abdool, Chief Marketing Officer
brittany@familiakitchen.com

Familia Kitchen Cabinet
Argentina — Melina Adduci
Colombia — Janeth Palacio Barrera
Cuba — Ana Osadzinski (Colet), Patty Morrell-Ruiz
Dominican Republic — Belqui Ortiz Millili
Guatemala — Leny González, Luis Yanes
Mexico — Anjie Villalobos, Vivi Abeja
Panama — Lisa Kear
Perú — Cecilia Oblitas Reinhofer
Puerto Rico — Felipa Saez, Michelle Ezratty Murphy
Vegetarian/Vegan — Veronica Giolli, Naihomy Jerez
Venezuela — Liliana Hernández

Photos: Michelle Ezratty Murphy, Kim Caviness
Annie Spratt (Homepage), Calum Lewis (La Tienda), Krisztian Tabori (About)

Familia Kitchen Go-to Crew
Heidi Anderson Hupe, Ansley Fones, Becca Loveridge, Missy Kelly, Laura Martinelli, Anne Martino, Ronnie Rodriguez, Kathleen Squires

Un fuerte abrazo to all the abuelas and abuelos who cook, feed people they love, and keep alive our authentic famiy recipes and food stories for the generaciones of today and tomorrow.

Puerto Rico history food
Ingredients for abuela cooking our way home, one family-famous receta at a time.

Familia Kitchen Media Mentions & Collaborations

Inside South Florida Familia Kitchen
In December 2022, Familia Kitchen went on ”Inside South Florida” WSFL TV with our querida amiga and super-talented Cuban-heritage cook Patty Morrell-Ruiz of The Mad Table to talk Christmas cooking, Latino-style. What did we make for host Jason Carter? Pernil stuffed with yuca, arroz con gandules, tres leches cake and—por supuesto—coquito!
Block Club Taco Tuesday
Block Club, Taco Tuesday, February 2023.
Familia Kitchen 6 in the mix Miami
NBC 6 in the Mix in Miami talks to Familia Kitchen about our new cookbook, including anchor Jen Herrera’s family’s favorite Cuban dish: ropa vieja. Thanks, Jen, for having us!
Block Club Day of the Dead
Block Club Chicago, Day of the Dead, November, 2023.
BeLatinas Guisell Gomez talks to Kim and Lisa about the new Familia Kitchen Cookbook.
Austin Studio 512 TV Kim Lisa
We loved talking to Rosie Newberry of Austin’s Studio 512 about our cookbook launch and favorite Tex-Mex and Mexican dishes—including this mezcal margarita with jalapeño!
KTLA Familia Kitchen
Thank you to Los Angeles’ KTLA Latino food-loving Sunday morning anchors Pedro and Megan for inviting Familia Kitchen on for a 6-minute segment this National Hispanic Month. Your show was the perfect place to announce the launch of Familia Kitchen Cookbook.
Block Club Chicago Familia Kitchen in the news
Block Club Chicago, National Hispanic Heritage Month, September 2023.
KTLA table National Hispanic Month
We talked to KTLA about how to make abuela-approved Mexican salsa and pozole, Colombian patacones with hogao, Puerto Rican arroz con pollo, Cuban pastelillos de guayaba, and flan (of course!). All these recipes are in Familia Kitchen Cookbook, publishing Sept. 30.
ABC 7 Stacy Baca Lent meatless
ABC 7 Chicago’s Stacy Baca invited Familia Kitchen on to share meatless meal ideas for Lent—and anytime of year, with family-famous recipes from our community!
Bad Bunny loves coconut in his dessert—like our tres leches cake, reports Mashed.
Familia Kitchen WGN Grand Prize contest
WGN‘s Christine Flores and Chip Brewster ask Lisa and Kim about Familia Kitchen’s first annual Grand Prize and our four finalists. Voting is open through January 28, 2022!
Familia Kitchen Be Latina
We talked to BeLatina.com about the power of #abuelacooking and honoring our Latino comida heritage one family-famous recipe at a time.
HuffPost logo
Huff Post Familia Kitchen
HuffPost asked Familia Kitchen about cultural appropriation vs. cultural appreciation in this think piece about Tik Tok influencers who “discover” Latino foods.
The Takeout Familia Kitchen arepas
The Takeout cited Familia Kitchen’s arepas as an essential recipe made with five staple ingredients. We love arepas, too. May we also suggest empanadas?
Latinos Out Loud Familia Kitchen
The Latinos Out Loud podcast crew invited us to talk comida latina history and how to ask abuelas about secret family recipes. Check it out however you listen to podcasts!
Familia Kitchen WGN News Now 2021
WATCH Lisa and Kim on WGN’s News Now with Christine Flores and Chip Brewster!
WATCH Lisa and Kim celebrate all things abuela cooking with Adelante Chicago’s Lourdes Duarte.
Cosign Familia Kitchen interview
Familia Kitchen’s Angela and Kim loved talking to Cosign’s unstoppable K.G., center, about keeping it real, building community, his Panamanian roots, and forever love for his mom’s arroz con pollo.

© 2022 Familia Kitchen LLC

cofounders lisa and kim
Familia Kitchen co-founders Kim and Lisa talking to WGN-TV’s Adelante, Chicago