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Johnny Vee
Author
Johnny Vee

John Vollertsen (aka Chef Johnny Vee) grew up on dishes that relied on sauces made from Campbell’s soup. Lucky for us, he dedicated himself to learning the culinary arts in places like New York City, Sydney, Australia, and Santa Fe. Since 1993, he has led the Las Cosas Cooking School, and his first cookbook, Cooking with Johnny Vee, recently came out in its second edition. He still remembers his first bite of a red chile enchilada at a New Mexico truck stop. Eschewing the cooling power of a sour cream garnish, he dug in. “My sinuses immediately cleared, and I tasted such complex flavors and textures that the bland food of my upstate New York youth was forever forgotten. It is that sense of discovery, surprise, wonder, and anticipation I hope to impart in all my teaching and writing.”

Kakawa Makes the Food of the Gods

THE MAYA AND AZTECS OF MESOAMERICA celebrated chocolate, enjoying its bitter qualities brewed with almonds, chile, and herbs in powerful elixirs. (Traces have been detected in pottery mugs found in…

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Planty Sweet Cooks Up Vegan Treats

ABOUT EIGHT YEARS AGO, a national food company asked me to critique a line of plant-based meat substitutes they were developing, to see if a chef thought restaurants and home cooks might like them. I…

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Gift a Taste of New Mexico

THINK OF FLYBY PROVISIONS AS SANTA’S little helper. The outfit began as a web store in 2019 but this past May debuted its brick-and-mortar shop in downtown Albuquerque, carrying made–in–New Mexico…

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Explore New Holiday Flavors

NO OTHER TIME OF THE YEAR IS AS CLOSELY associated with food and family as the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas. This is when we reach for cherished recipes. When I was growing up in…

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Step Up Your Mixology Skills

YOUR GRANDMOTHER’S ANGOSTURA BITTERS may have done the trick for her occasional Manhattan, but these days, that drop of added flavor has grown exotic and eclectic. Since 2010, Santa Fe’s Bitter End…

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Spread Some Sweet & Spicy Love

NEW MEXICO'S LONG GRILLING SEASON means we fire up our Webers and Big Green Eggs into fall. The charred goodies that take a trip over the flames benefit from delicious toppings and condiments. Check…

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