Abigail Mendoza Ruiz
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Abigail Mendoza Ruiz (also known as Abigail Mendoza) is a Zapotec chef and co-owner of restaurant Tlamanalli, which she runs with her sisters, in Teotitlán del Valle, Mexico, near Oaxaca.[1] She opened Tlamanalli in February 1990 in order to serve traditional Zapotec cuisine such as mole and squash blossom soup. The restaurant was soon featured in Gourmet magazine.[2] In 1993, her restaurant received a write-up by food critic Molly O'Neill in the New York Times.[3]
Mendoza Ruiz has since traveled to France to demonstrate Zapotec cooking.[1] She was profiled in Anthony Bourdain's series Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, featured in a documentary about British food writer Diana Kennedy, and shown on a digital cover of Vogue Mexico and Latin America for the magazine's 20th anniversary.[2][4][5][6]
Mendoza Ruiz was born in the 1960s and learned to cook by watching her mother and aunt in the kitchen.[2]
In 2023 the Mexican Federal Government awarded her the National Prize for Arts in the Popular Arts and Traditions category.[7][8][9]
