The colors and flavors of Latino cuisine can be found all over Chicago now, but it hasn’t always been considered worthy of fine dining. Chef Mark Mendez of Skokie’s Libertad restaurant said Latino cuisine deserves a spot among the world’s great culinary traditions.

“This food is just as serious as anything that’s out there,” Mendez said. “So let’s talk about it and let’s cook it and let’s show people how serious we can be.”

Chef Mendez on Being Half Puerto Rican

“When I grew up, my house was kind of like ‘I Love Lucy,’ which I don’t know if anyone knows what ‘I Love Lucy’ is anymore, but my father is Puerto Rican, and my mother was from downstate Illinois. And this was the ‘50s, right? So my father said, ‘If we’re gonna get married, you have to know how to cook Puerto Rican food,’ right? So you have to know how to make tostones, arroz con gandules, pasteles, everything, you have to know how to do it. So they went to Puerto Rico. My grandmother taught her how to make Puerto Rican food, and then she came back and then they got married.”

“My mom is a great cook, and she loved doing it. When I was a kid, I would pull on her skirt. I’d be like, ‘What are you doing? What are you making?’ And so the first thing she taught me how to make was tostones. And then learning from my father, who was fiercely proud of his heritage, he would take me to Humboldt Park and we’d go shopping for stuff so I could learn what yucca and platano were.”

Chef Mendez on Latino Cuisine

“There should be a spice level. It doesn’t have to be spicy. There should be something there. It should be bright colored, I feel like. It should be alive, there should be a lot of acid. Let’s hit all these notes, because this is what Latin American food is. The French and Italian can do whatever they want, you know, and I feel like we should do what we want, too.”

Chef Mendez on Sourcing from Farmers Markets

“I started going because I saw other chefs were doing it, other chefs that I respected. I said, OK, these guys are going to the market, why are they going? I just was curious, and I remember going with the attitude, I remember saying to one of my sous chefs, like, ‘How different can it be? Like, a carrot’s a carrot, man.’ I remember saying those exact words, ‘a carrot’s a carrot, like, come on.’ And then when I got there, I remember trying one of the farmer’s arugula, and my head exploded because I was like: I’ve never tasted anything like this in my life. During the summer when there’s so many things in season, I always go overboard. I always say that I’m not, and I always do. I always buy way too many tomatoes or peppers or chiles and it’s just, it’s summer, man. Get it while you have it, and then it’s gone.”

Chef Mendez on Listening to His Wife

“We had this kale salad on the menu at my restaurant, and I hated it. I hated it just because this is how chefs are. I’m going to give you an insight on what chefs are like. It sold like crazy, so, of course, I hated it. I wanted to take it off and she was like, ‘Mark, people really like that salad.’ But I was like, ‘Yeah, I don’t care. I’m the chef. I’m going to do what I want.’ And then we took it off the menu and people were — to say they were upset was really not even coming close. And then I got to thinking about it. I’m like, what did I do? Why did I do that? And, you know, I should’ve just listened to her in the first place.”

Chef Mendez on Chef Effy Medrano

“He’s executive chef at Purple Pig. And when I started at Spiaggia, he was a kid. I was young, but he was younger, but he had been there longer and he kind of showed me the ropes. He really helped me. He was hard on me, but it was in a good way, and he really helped me learn those skills you need as a cook to, like, survive. He’s a great cook, good chef, but it’s not just him, right? It’s like, how many cooks have shown me how to do something in 32 years?”