Today we’d like to introduce you to Arturo Feliz-Camilo.
Hi Arturo, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
My journey began as a young boy asking my mother to teach me how to cook. After some initial reluctance, she agreed, and she and my grandmother became my greatest teachers. From them, I learned traditional Dominican cooking, and when my grandmother passed away, I felt compelled to preserve that heritage and everything they had taught me. Over time, that passion grew into El Fogoncito, founded in 2010, more than thirteen published cookbooks, and several Gourmand World Cookbook Awards. I’ve cooked for many audiences and remain excited to learn and teach culture through food. My work has always been about more than recipes; it is about preserving and sharing the history, culture, and identity carried through food.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Losing my grandmother, Mama Pura, who was almost like a mother to me, was deeply painful and shook my entire world. It led to the greatest shift in my life, pushing me to devote much more of myself to writing and cooking. I went through a very difficult year, but afterward, my life found greater purpose and became much happier. A constant challenge, however, has been balancing gastronomy—cooking, researching, writing, and publishing—with my responsibilities as an educator, husband, father, and professional. Much of what I have accomplished was built gradually, within the limited time available, because of my genuine belief that Dominican culinary heritage deserves to be documented, respected, and shared.
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
I am a traditional Dominican cook, culinary author, historian, and educator. I specialize in researching, documenting, cooking, and teaching Dominican and Caribbean food, with particular attention to its origins, language, traditions, and cultural meaning. Through El Fogoncito and books such as *Las recetas de Mamá Pura*, *Diccionario Culinario Dominicano*, and *Longaniza Dominicana*, I have tried to present our cuisine as more than a collection of recipes: it is a historical record and an essential part of our identity. My work has also taken Dominican food before international audiences, including the Dominican Food Festival I directed in Yantai, China.
I never intended for this to happen, but what started with me just using a blog as my personal online notepad led me to eventually becoming the top culinary author in the Dominican Republic, with thousands of books sold and 8 Gourmand World Cookbook Awards.
Can you talk to us a bit about happiness and what makes you happy?
Food makes me happy. Because it’s art, it’s self expression, it’s identity, it’s heritage, it’s history, it’s culture, it’s who we are, it’s who we were, and it is definitely part of who we want to be
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Arturofeliz.com
- Instagram: arturofelizcamilo
- Facebook: arturofelizcamilo
- LinkedIn: arturofelizcamilo
- Twitter: arturofeliz
