Tastes of Home

Chef Gabriela Cámara's kitchen balances family tradition with restaurant-inspired touches

- BY KATE KASSIN • PHOTOGRAPHS BY ELLIOTT JEROME BROWN JR.

Chances are, if you're planning a trip to Mexico City, the most universal recommendation you'll get is to have lunch at Contramar. Heed the call. The celebrated restaurant in the Roma Norte neighborhood is most famous for its whole red snapper painted in vibrant swaths of red chile and green parsley sauces, but the menu is filled with must-try seafood (like the impeccable tuna tostadas). The mastermind behind it, and several other decorated restaurants across the city, is chef Gabriela Cámara. Cámara is one of the busiest chefs I know and she's still tackling new projects, like Cantina Contramar in Las Vegas, so she cherishes time at home. In a kitchen warmed by sunlight streaming in from glass doors, you'll find stacks of cookbooks, walls lined with her grandmother's copper baking pans, and bowls overflowing with produce from her garden. Here, Cámara shares how sh