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Critically-Unclaimed, Wholly Obscure Tucson Chef, Bakery Owner ‘de Martinez’ Showcases Intoxicated Up-and-Coming in Food Industry with New Book
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TUCSON, AZ - JULY 14, 2021 - Author "de Martinez", a Tucson-based maker and baker of near-future fecal matter (typically known as “food” in the common vernacular) has released a self-published memoir highlighting his nationwide escapades from Arizona to New York and back again, including multiple run-ins with the law and at least one attempt at crossing the Louisiana-Texas border on foot.
Laminating Daniel: misadventures of a jalapeno popper from too-stoned, arizona is the candid recounting of de Martinez’s twenty-plus years in the foodservice industry, aspiring not so much to Michelin-star chefdom and critical acclaim as to salvaging a failing relationship, paying the bills on time, and drinking as much about food--er, learning as much about food as possible.
“If you’re looking for recipes, anecdotes, or warm and fuzzy tales about communal mastication, you’re going to be disappointed,” says Martinez. “I took it to heart when I read what Anthony Bourdain wrote about professional kitchens being the last refuge of American society’s misfits, and for years I used it as an excuse to act like a damn fool.”
Spanning nearly thirty years from the early 90’s to the COVID-19 Pandemic of 2020, Laminating Daniel brilliantly showcases poor decision-making in the face of golden opportunity and an almost flippant squandering of almost every chance at conventionally happy, healthy relationships with friends and family.
But Laminating Daniel also demonstrates how simply even a minor shift in the manner in which one thinks and acts can be truly life-changing: Going from thirty days in jail and two (almost three) DUIs in two different states, to gaining closure at his father’s graveside and finding lasting love in the same kitchen environment that once fostered little more than feelings of fear, inadequacy, and self-loathing.
“Maybe as I mature I can’t call myself a jalapeno popper, anymore; sometimes I feel like I’m a smoked and dried chipotle pepper at best.” De Martinez is based in Tucson, Arizona, where he and his wife own and operate one of only two authentic French bakeries in the area.
Laminating Daniel: misadventures of a jalapeno popper from too-stoned, arizona is available from Amazon in paperback ($14.75, ISBN 979-8521742301, 236 pages) and as an ebook ($2.99, ASIN B097JXSV8P). For interviews, speaking engagements, review copies and other information, contact Daniel Eduardo Martinez at demartinez.dennan@gmail.com, www.thecynicalchef.com, or on social media (FB @thecynicalchef, IG @thesinicalchef).
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Former Corporate Executive Chef Serves Up Poetry That’s More Huitlacoche Than Truffle, More Fast Casual Than Fine-Dining
TUCSON, AZ - JULY 16, 2021 - In a previous life, Tucson-based bakery owner and former Executive Chef Daniel Eduardo Martinez oversaw, at one point, seven restaurants in two states; now with his new book, Dark Wander: poetry unintended for the faint of heart, he’s serving up twenty-six free-verse poems ranging in length from just a few lines to pages-long narratives featuring a serial killer, a fatherless alcoholic, and a few other creations that don’t quite seem to exist in the realm of the norm.
Writing under the pen-name “de Martinez,” Daniel styles himself “the Cynical Chef”, as evidenced by both website and business card. “You meet a lot of people when you work in kitchens from the time you’re in high school until you’re approaching middle age,” says Martinez. “Sometimes they’re not always the brightest bulbs in the pack, and sometimes they’re not the nicest people at all. But all of them are some kind of inspirational.”
To be sure, Dark Wander has absolutely nothing to do with cooks, servers, food, or with Martinez’s more than two decades spent in professional kitchens in Arizona, Texas, and New York—unless you count the fact that serial killer Jamaal, the main character in the first-person narrative “Jamaal”, claims to eat a number of his victims. “My mother always wanted me to write something about a serial killer,” says Martinez. “She likes the true-crime genre and she thought it would be kind of cool. It was her idea to name him Jamaal.”
Although the fictional stories surrounding Jamaal and his atypical family comprise the vast majority of Dark Wander, there are a few pieces that veer away from the darker side of humanity: The very first poem, “The Jacket”, comes across as deeply personal, and the final section of the book, “Egress”, contemplates some bigger questions such as the nature of Heaven and Hell and the fluidity of human knowledge, consciousness, and conscious perception.
Dark Wander: poetry unintended for the faint of heart is available in paperback from Amazon for $12.99 (ISBN 979-8522737535, 208 pages). For interviews, speaking engagements, review copies and other information, contact Daniel Eduardo Martinez at demartinez.dennan@gmail.com, www.thecynicalchef.com, or on social media (FB @thecynicalchef, IG @thesinicalchef).
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The Cook’s Book is Not a Cookbook But It’s a Book for Cooks, Written by a Cook Who Never Had Such a Book
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TUCSON, AZ - JUNE 15, 2021 - Local author, chef, and bakery owner Daniel Eduardo Martinez, writing under the pen name “de Martinez”, has released a new book for professional cooks and foodservice workers outlining the bare-bones kitchen basics you need in order to make it in the industry, from technique and terminology to the basic rules and etiquette that might be reasonably expected by your new chef, manager, or shift leader.
“I started the Cook’s Book back in 2017, 2018, when I was Corporate Executive Chef for a family-owned and -operated restaurant group,” says Martinez. “It was supposed to be a kind of manual for the Chefs and Sous Chefs under my direct supervision, which in turn was for them to be better leaders and educators.”
Aside from general definitions of typical kitchen lingo including “86’d” (out of something), “Rezzies” (reservations), and “Cap it” (cover a pot or pan), the Cook’s Book, available on Amazon in both paperback and as an ebook, outlines what it takes to be a cook and a chef by outlining what Daniel calls “A Kitchen of We”, the difference between a cook and a chef (one is described a “state of becoming”, the other as a “state of having become”), and what Daniel refers as the Charter, or the Rules—including Rule #1, “This is a Kitchen of We”; Rule #12, “It is impossible to achieve perfection”; and Rule #25, “This is not a pirate ship and you are not a pirate”.
Comprised of six different segments plus suggested reading for those so inclined, the Cook’s Book is a brief but multi-layered collection of essays and lists: “After I quit the Corporate Executive job I basically just wanted to distill what was essentially twenty years of kitchen experience into one portable volume, including not only my own philosophy for the kitchen but also a lot of the books and authors who inspired me along the way.”
Currently Daniel, along with his wife, owns one of only two authentic French bakeries in the Tucson area, Cafe Francais. Their traditional and nontraditional baked goods are available at Heirloom Farmer Markets and at their storefront, located at 7831 E. Wrightstown Rd., Suite 113. For interviews, speaking engagements, review copies and other information, contact Daniel Eduardo Martinez at demartinez.dennan@gmail.com, www.thecynicalchef.com, or on social media (FB @thecynicalchef, IG @thesinicalchef).
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Paperback: $7.99 | ISBN 979-8536922736 | 126 pages
ebook: $2.99 | ASIN B07WGQZDKG
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