Photo of Layla Pujol holding a tray of plantains

Everything you ever wanted to know about Layla Pujol, aka Laylita:

I grew up on a farm in a small town called Vilcabamba, near the city of Loja in Ecuador. I moved to the US after high school and went to school in Austin, Texas. I also lived Seattle for several years and consider the Pacific Northwest to be my US home. I currently live in Luxembourg, we recently moved to Europe to be closer to my husband’s family.

My husband, Nicolas is from France, he also ended up in Austin for school, which is where we met. We have two boys, Alex & Marc, who love to eat and ā€œrateā€ everything we eat. Outside of cooking and taking photos of food, my background is in online marketing, with a strong focus on travel and Latam markets.

Modern day nomads

You could say that my family is an example of modern-day nomads; my parents started it when they moved from the US to South America in the 70’s, they were originally in Colombia and then decided to move permanently to Ecuador. For both my husband and myself, there are many times when we wish we could live closer to our families and to the places that we grew up – you always miss your roots.

However, we are fortunate enough to have established strong friendships with so many amazing people in the US, including other modern-day nomads. We have met great people from Ecuador & France here, and many others who come from Mexico, Italy, Russia, Egypt, Estonia, China, India, Iran, Argentina, Brazil, among other places. I love being exposed to so many different cultures and of course, such a great variety of international foods.

How this site got started
In Texas I lived with my grandmother for a while, she was from Louisiana and was an amazing cook. I have fond memories of all the holidays celebrated at her place, some great food memories include my grandfather’s BBQ ribs and brisket, my grandmother’s gumbo & jambalaya, her chicken spaghetti, among any others. While my grandmother’s food was delicious, I always found myself missing the Ecuadorian food that I grew up with, so I had to learn how to cook these dishes myself and adapt them based on the ingredients I found in the US.

I could always ask my mom or friends for recipes, but I never got exact quantities or precise instructions: it was ā€œadd a little bit of this, some of that and cook it for a whileā€. That’s the way you cook in Ecuador, you learn to get the flavor right based on your ā€œsazonā€ or seasoning skills. I started documenting quantities and cooking times when friends asked me to share recipes, then my husband suggested that I start a blog to post the recipes to make it easier to share. Even though my blog is mainly focused on Ecuadorian and Latin food, I will also post recipes for dishes that I have learned from friends or family, and/or that are simply influenced by the ingredients and places around me.

While I started this site to share recipes with friends, it’s become more than that and my dream is to use it to introduce more people to Ecuadorian food. This site is also for all my fellow Ecuadorians or those who have lived there previously, but are now living outside of Ecuador and miss the food. I try to keep my recipes as close to the traditional versions, but with adjustments for ingredients that are hard to find outside of Ecuador. Ecuadorian food has so much diversity, which is in line with geographical diversity of this small country; there is a wonderful variety of fruits and vegetables that grow in Ecuador.

Ecuadorian people use ingredients in such a loving and respectful way: using every part of an ingredient when you cook shows respect to it – this is shown in a simply pineapple drink called chicha de pina which uses parts of the pineapple that most would throw in the trash or dishes like caldo de pata or cow feet soup, which is made with a part of the cow that in other places would be discarded. If you’ve ever visited Ecuador, you have likely met local people who even though they barely know you will welcome you into their home and are more than willing to share their meal with you.

More about food

I’ve always loved food, though I will admit that I was a little picky as a child. One the first things I learned to cook all by myself were plantains. My food is influenced by my mom’s cooking; she grew up in New Mexico, and brought her love of spicy food to Ecuador. I remember she made everything from scratch: tortillas, sauces, bread, etc. Our house was always filled the smell of something baking or cooking. My mom’s cooking could be described as combination of New Mexican influence (think spice), Ecuadorian recipes and ingredients, but always with a healthy twist (olive oil instead of lard, homemade yogurt instead of sour cream, whole wheat flour, brown rice).

We grew many of the vegetables and fruits we ate on our small farm. My mom had a small business that made several food products (herb salts, banana vinegar, cakes, whole wheat bread, cookies, etc) and would hire the local ladies to help produce these. These ladies were the ones who would tell us stories and folk tales (many scary ones about the devil), but they would also cook very traditional Ecuadorian dishes (empanadas de viento, emborrajados, locros, fritada, quimbolitos, and more) which I loved. My food is also inspired by my friends and their mothers who cooked amazing dishes, both when I was in elementary school in Vilcabamba as well as when I was in high school in Loja. In Ecuador, you cannot help but be exposed to great street food or snack food, from salchipapas to chifles to carne en palito to green mangos with salt to espumillas.


Some other random information:

I love all types of kitchen gadgets and anything kitchen related (except for doing dishes), though I am currently banned from adding anything new to my kitchen gadget collection due to lack of space. I can’t cook without cumin, cilantro, garlic, limes, avocados and cheese – if I’m out of these ingredients it means I need to go grocery shopping.

I love grocery shopping. My favorite places include any Farmer’s markets, Pike Place Market, Metropolitan Market (Seattle), Uwajimaya (Seattle), PCC (Seattle), all the Latin grocery stores, and Costco. Back in Austin, my go-to places were Fiesta and Central Market. Here in Luxembourg I’m still discovering and finding my places, but so far I love Grand Frais, Auchan, the ethnic grocery stores in the Gare area, and the local farm stands like LetzGrow.

I prefer salty and spicy foods to sweets. I say “what the crap” a lot. I was deathly afraid of bulls as a kid, so I always avoided wearing anything red when going on hikes where we might run into any bulls. I suck at sports, but I used to be really good at climbing trees – especially if they have fruit to pick.

PS – This is futbol (soccer) situation in our home: we all support Ecuador (and the US and sometimes France, unless they are playing against Ecuador), I am a supporter of Liga de Loja (my awesome hometown team) and Emelec. Sadly, back in 2012 my kids were (briefly) brainwashed by my Barcelechista brother who convinced them to support the Ecuadorian Barcelona team. My other brother is a Liga de Quito supporter and my mom says she supports all of the teams her kids go for. My son Marc is a huge fan of Manchester United and whatever team Messi plays for. We both support the Seattle Sounders as our favorite MLS team.

If you have any questions or comments my email is layla at laylita dot com

About Layla Pujol, author of Laylita's Recipes

27 Comments

  1. Such a beautiful story…..I know that you will be placing this in your cookbook Layla. I truly enjoyed reading this. Your story resembles my experiences in the kitchen. So much happens in the kitchen. I miss my grandmother and my mother so much. They were my models in the culinary world. Keep cooking sweetheart! You are such a lovely young woman. Blessings to you and your familia. (:

  2. Laylita:
    I have been following for years, since I started having cravings for more elaborated ecuadorian food. I am from Guayaquil and currently live in South Carolina. i wish you all the best with your book, please keep the recipes coming. I learned how to make “Caldo de Bolas” with your recipe.

  3. Hi Laylita: I recently went to an Ecuadorean Restaurant and ordered Gautita. I was blown away by how good it was, so today I was looking for the recipe and found you….. Your site is amazing, it is clear you love your food and love sharing it with others. The recipes are beautiful and simple to make and I know I will be making many of them really soon. Thank you for such a beautiful way of sharing your life and the amazing recipes with the world. I am looking forward to getting your book.

    Alexandra

  4. I am so happy to have stumbled upon your website. I lived in Ecuador— and if you were in Vilcabamba you may actually know where it is—- in the canton of Las Lajas in the Provence of El Oro for about 2 1/2 years. And, my husband is an Ecuadorian. Two of my most favorite dishes are Seco de pescado (we make this with Giant Perch here which is so much tastier than tilapia) and Fritada. And patacones are one of my weaknesses which I will now need to try using the alternative method of boiling first that you talked about. There are so many wonderful dishes in Ecuador but I wasn’t sure how to make many of them and am excited about now having a recipe!

    Buen Provecho!

  5. I’m engaged to an Ecuadorian who pretty much made Ecuadorian cooking a requisite (not that he had to enforce it very hardly since I love the cuisine). Your recipes made my cooking in the US so simple and easygoing, he didn’t expect me to be able to replicate a lot of the dishes until I served him with humitas. We’re now planning on moving to Ecuador soon so I’m glad I have vast experience copying your dishes! Thank you so much for taking the time to share these with us. I’m very ready to pre-order your cookbook. :)

    Mayra

  6. Your website is the first place I look for Ecuadorian recipes as I live in Ecuador now, and am more recipe-oriented. I have had many “cooking lessons” from the locals here, and we love sharing our favorite recipes from the States, but sometimes just saying “a pinch of this, and a splash of that” isn’t as helpful as exact measurements. Then I can adjust to taste. Ive made many recipes from your site. Thank you for helping me be a better “cocinero equatoriano”! Buen provecho!

  7. Hi! I came upon your blog by chance. looking for a recipe to make seco de chivo, loved your recipe and now whenever I want to make an Ecuadorean dish I look for your recipes. They are fantastic, easy to follow too.. Today I will attempt to make morocho, hope to give justice to your recipe.. BYTW, I am not Ecuadorean but my husband is and have visited Ecuador many times, beautiful country!

  8. Laylita: I am from Pasto located in the south of Colombia, and we share so many dishes with Ecuador. I have made many of your recipes and they are always pretty good. I was wondering if you could please send me a recipe for Quimbolitos, I tried to look for it in the website but you don’t have any. Something else, you mentioned you lived in Austin, TX and I recently moved there do you have any recommendations about good south american restaurants in town?
    Thanks,
    Adriana

  9. Today I read your bio. I didn’t realize you lived in Seattle. I do too.
    I really appreciate you website and so enjoy your recipes. As I said in an earlier comment. I make lomo often as it’s a quick meal after work.
    I love arroz con pato and secos, instead of cabrito, I use lamb. It took awhile for me to get used to the cilantro flavor, but now….
    I photograph my sisters-in law when I go to Peru, to copy what they make.
    I look forward to following you more closely.
    Sandy

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