Food For The Soul

Yes, we eat to nourish our bodies. But food can also inspire, heal, and bring us closer to the people we love. These seven womenwho cooked and baked their way through scary diagnoses, life transitions, and moreare living proof.

- Stephanie Booth

“Heirloom recipes connect me to my roots”

Bricia Lopez, 34, Los Angeles

WHEN BRICIA WAS 9 YEARS OLD, SHE moved from Oaxaca, Mexico, to California with her family. “I was in culture shock,” she remembers. “Not only did I not speak the language, but I didn’t eat the food other kids did. I didn’t know what French toast was, and I had only eaten fries once before.”

Bricia tried the new American foods and liked them—but not as much as the pollo enchipotlado (chipotle chicken) and caldo de pollo (chicken soup) her mother continued to make. Those familiar dishes helped Bricia feel less homesick: “Every day after school, I walked into the aroma of garlic, onion, and cumin.”

Cooking was a sacred tradition in Bricia’s family, and the time her relatives spent enjoying those meals was when their “souls connected,” she says. “Those moments shaped who I am.”

Bricia is now a chef, and her family recipes inspire the menu at her restaurant, Guelaguetza. No matter where in the world you are, she says, cooking a recipe you’ve inherited—from the ritual of prepping the ingredients to inhaling their familiar scents— allows you to stay connected to your roots in a visceral way. “Food helps you keep the spirit of your ancestry alive.”

“Cooking got us through cancer” Mandy, 34, and Kirsten Dixon,

62, Homer, Alaska

IN THE SPRING OF 2013, KIRSTEN AND