Today we’d like to introduce you to Dora Ramirez
Hi Dora , thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I was born in Acuña, Coahuila a small town on the border of Texas and Mexico. Where my family has operated a restaurant, Los Tacos Grill, for the last 35 years. I guess you could say I grew up in the business, the business of eating that is, because up until it was time to go to college I was not the least interested in cooking. Probably because my mother stopped cooking at home by the time I was 6, and we ate all our family meals at the restaurant. I did my homework there after school, as a teenager worked the cash register as punishment for my misdeeds, and as a family helped out at big catering events, dishing out food at company picnics, and serving weddings.
After high school I was on a spiritual quest to discern my vocation in life (I almost became a nun!) and spent a year in Mexico City as a missionary. There I experienced Mexican cuisine in a way I had never done before. For the first time I tried tortillas made with blue corn nixtamal, quesadillas filled with zucchini blossoms cooked with epazote, earthy huitlacoche, and chiles in nogada. I got to experience first hand the Gorditas De la Villa and the antojitos of the floating trajineras of Xochimilco. One of my responsibilities was to help out in the kitchen, and this is what opened my eyes to the magic of cooking. And it did seem like magic to me, because I marveled constantly at the ease in which the house cook took the scarce ingredients available and turned them into chilaquiles smothered in a spicy tomato sauce, sopa de fideo topped with crema, and enfrijoladas bursting with stewed calabacitas.
I returned home and enrolled in the Culinary Institute of America in New York. I graduated in 2006 ready to conquer the food world. I worked in restaurant for a couple of years in Washington DC, and California. I quit working in professional kitchens when my first baby was born, Soon after I encountered a health problem that plagued me for years. With each passing year my pain and discomfort grew and doctors would prescribe me more and more medications. After a friend hounded me for weeks to watch the documentary Forks Over Knives, which goes into detail about the health benefits of living a plant-based lifestyle, I decided to give it a try. I failed miserably. I simply couldn’t do it, I felt the sacrifice was too great, and I saw no improvement in my health. It wasn’t until I was able to do it for 40 days straight one Lent that I began to see a cloud lift. My pain diminished and eventually disappeared, I never looked back.
When my mother was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes I was on a mission to get her to go vegan. I kept making vegan dishes for her , which she did not like! Until one day, out of frustration, she said, ” Can’t you make this more Mexican?”. So I did. I began veganizing all of our family recipes which lead me to start my blog dorastable.com.
Even though health was what brought me to veganism, there are many more reasons to stop eating meat and I discovered those as well along the way. I already knew about the unspeakable cruelty that takes place at factory farms to both the animals and the workers who process them before going vegan, but I had convinced myself that buying organic or grass-fed meat was enough. But something happened after months of not eating meat that I didn’t expect, I began to see those foods for what they really are, animals, intelligent creatures who deserve our compassion. Later I learned about the severe ecological costs of that same factory farming and its contribution to the precipitation of climate change. All of this reinforced my decision to stay vegan, and I can now say with certainty that I made the right choice and I hope you will consider it too.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
The most challenging has been growing a business while raising a family. It’s a constant struggle to find a balance between putting the family first, and still managing to do everything that needs to get done. I grew my business while I was a stay at home mom, during nap-times, and after the kids were asleep. Later I catered events on the weekends, babysat, worked part-time at a Church, and gave cooking classes all to be able to invest back into my business.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
You would now call me an influencer, but I started out as a blogger in 2011 in 2015 I decided to risk it all and go all in to try and make an income from my blog. I share vegan Mexican recipes and videos to inspire the people of my community to take a leap and try to go vegan. It is important to me that everyone knows that you don’t have to give up your culture when you go vegan, you can still have your abuelita’s pozole and tamales for Christmas. I am known for my viral vegan tamales videos, made with jackfruit. I am most proud of my upcoming cookbook. Being vegan in TX is no small feat, what sets me apart is that I am able to make delicious traditional Mexican food using only plants.
What do you like best about our city? What do you like least?
San Antonio feels like home. For me, it has always had a small-town feel with all the benefits of a large city. San Antonians are very friendly and very proud of who they are, and I love that. What I like the least is all the driving, but that’s really on me I think, the kids go to different schools, and I have to do a lot of driving for drop-off and pick up.
Pricing:
- social media promotion
- speaking engagement
- cooking classes
- culinary demonstrations
Contact Info:
- Website: https://dorastable.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dorastable/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drstable
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCbWTwaTn1QZB8lRFV1ee3zQ
- Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@dorastable
