Lourdes Castro

Professor and chef Lourdes Castro is passionate about teaching and cooking and is as comfortable in the classroom as she is in the kitchen. She was her own first student, teaching herself how to cook while in graduate school. Lourdes’ initial experiments in the kitchen led to her profound understanding of food and flavor. Her self-taught background helps her relate to her students, contributing to her dynamic and accessible teaching style.

Lourdes entered the culinary world as a college student at New York University, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Nutrition and Food in 1993. She then attended Columbia University, earning a Master’s in Nutritional Sciences. Concurrent with her Master’s degree, Lourdes was also licensed as a Registered Dietitian.

Shortly after graduation, Lourdes served as an associate at the James Beard Foundation. But it was Lourdes’ love of teaching that inspired her to return to her alma mater, NYU, where she is an Adjunct Professor in the department of Nutrition, Food Studies & Public Health, teaching ten courses per year.

A natural at explaining culinary concepts, Lourdes founded the Ars Magirica Cooking School in Miami, Florida in 2001. She created an acclaimed private catering service for high-profile clients seeking nutritious and flavorful meals. In 2006, she sold the cooking school to pursue other opportunities.

In 2008, Lourdes was approached by the Biltmore Hotel to launch its first on-premise recreational cooking school. As director, Lourdes oversees classes, workshops and team-building events for adults and children, and has influenced and inspired hundreds of home cooks through her classes.

Inspired to teach an even broader audience, Lourdes has written three cookbooks Simply Mexican (Ten Speed Press, 2009), Eat, Drink, Think in Spanish (Ten Speed Press, 2009), and Latin Grilling (Ten Speed Press, 2011). Her straightforward and user- friendly style contributed to Food & Wine magazine’s selection of Simply Mexican as one of the 25 best cookbooks of 2009 and iVillage.com’s selection of Latin Grilling as one of the top 10 cookbooks of 2011.

Born in Miami to Cuban parents, Lourdes is fluent in both English and Spanish. She has translated for acclaimed chefs such as Juan Mari Arzak, Pedro Subijana, Dani Garcia, Paco Torreblanca, Harold McGee, and Tetsuya Wakuda. She also translated events hosted by the James Beard Foundation, Madrid Fusion Culinary Conference, StarChefs.com, and the South Beach Food & Wine Festival. Lourdes also works closely with the American Heart Association’s Latino initiative and has been an invited speaker at their annual summit.

Lourdes has appeared on NBC’s Today Show, CBS’ Early Show, and regularly on CNN en Español. She was selected by Bacardi USA as the face of a video series in which she created and explained rum based recipes and cocktails in English and Spanish. Her talent and success are profiled in noteworthy publications such as Food & Wine magazine, Ocean Drive, Latina, The Miami Herald, The Washington Post, Ocean Drive en Español, and El Nuevo Herald. Her recipes appeared in Men’s Health, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Sun Sentinel, and The Seattle Times.

Currently, Lourdes works with Unilever as a food and nutrition expert spokesperson helping the company reach out to the US Hispanic market. Lourdes is an active member of Les Dames d’Escoffier and was selected by the organization to contribute a recipe to their cookbook, Cooking with Les Dames d’Escoffier (Sasquatch Books, 2009). She currently lives in New York City.

Cookbook Author

and Teacher