Penelope Casas
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Penelope suggests not worrying too much about the etiquette of eating paella, the traditional Spanish dish rife with seafood. “Eating paella is a very casual affair, and it is much more fun to eat the shrimp and shellfish with your fingers,” she says.
Penelope Casas is the author of La Cocina de Mamá, Paella!, ¡Delicioso!, Discovering Spain, and The Foods and Wines of Spain. She has written about Spanish food and travel for the New York Times, Gourmet, Saveur, and Bon Appétit. To learn as much as she can, she says she digs into old Spanish cookbooks and family collections and observes home cooks and restaurant chefs prepare authentic Spanish dishes, both traditional and contemporary.
Penelope and her Madrid-born husband take groups to Spain to explore every corner of the country and learn about Spanish food and wine. The Spanish government has awarded her both the National Prize of Gastronomy and the Medal of Touristic Merit, and has named her Dame of the Order of Civil Merit.
She and her husband live in New York City but make several trips to Spain every year.
Latest Recipes
Penelope's featured recipe
Isabel’s Vegetable Paella
Her all-vegetable paella was one of the best I had ever eaten, and the memory of its taste stayed with me for many weeks. Of course, Isabel attributes its great taste to the garden-fresh vegetables that grow in abundance in Valencia, a region often called the “Garden of Spain,” and the wood from orange trees (Valencia’s other claim to fame is its orange groves) used to flame the fire and make the socarrat—a crisp crust of rice that sticks to the bottom of the paella pan. Nonetheless, when I prepared her paella at home I think the results came quite close to the original. Click for recipe