In August 2007 comes her first book, Isabel’s Cantina: Bold Latin Flavors from the New California Kitchen (Clarkson Potter/Random House).  In it Cruz shares the deceptively simple recipes that make all of her restaurants so popular, as well as many of her own personal favorites.  Using boldly flavored ingredients common to both Latin and Asian cuisines – mango, lime, chile, mint, ginger, coconut, cilantro, etc. – she creates meals both healthful and delicious.

A native of Los Angeles who spent her childhood in Huntington Beach and other parts of Orange County, California, Cruz grew up in a large Hispanic family.  “My parents used to throw these crazy parties.  The women would cook all day, and there was a Tito Puente-type band in the backyard.  My father started inviting the neighbors so they wouldn’t complain about the noise,” she recalls.  Many of these neighbors – Puerto Rican, Cuban, Peruvian – would bring over food, each with their distinct flavors and fragrances.  While learning to cook at home, she also spent time in the kitchen with her Asian friends learning Japanese, Chinese and Korean cuisine.

After high school Cruz dabbled in catering, baking cakes for local restaurants and realizing that cooking was her true passion.  With no formal education as a chef, she nonetheless seized the chance to open her first small restaurant in San Diego in 1992, cooking what she loved to eat: simple Latin comfort food embellished with the bold Pacific Rim flavors she knew from her old neighborhood.  This fusion style allowed her to cut some of the calories and fat so often found in Latin food without sacrificing taste.

From baked goods and basic breakfasts at her Seaside Cantina in San Diego, Isabel Cruz honed her Latin/Asian style at The Coffee Cup, a local institution which she took over in 1998.  Steadily creating such recipes as Nirvana a healthy breakfast with Sesame grilled tofu, egg whites, broccoli, zucchini and short grain brown rice, with fresh Salsa Cruda or Double Happiness, a popular lunch item made with tender chicken and steak and marinated in a sesame ginger sauce with brown rice, steamed vegetables and peanut sauce.  Isabel has built a palette of reliable dishes that could be replicated at each new venue.  In 2002 Cruz opened Isabel’s Cantina, a visually engaging space two blocks from Pacific Beach, followed three years later by her first venue outside California, Dragonfly, formerly a 1930s-era Baptist church in Ashland, Oregon.  She recently opened the doors of Isabel’s in Portland.

Having traveled a significant amount throughout Europe, Latin America and Puerto Rico, Isabel Cruz has also traveled the talk show circuit, from segments on “Good Morning America” to those on ABC, NBC, Fox News and others.  Her signature recipes have similarly populated the glossy pages of such magazines as Cooking Light and Dining Out.

Named among “Fifty People to Watch” by San Diego Magazine and “Women Who Mean Business” by the San Diego Business Journal, Cruz became one of the first “Remarkable Women” recognized by California First Lady Maria Shriver.  Shriver herself has visited Cruz’s restaurants, as has numerous other celebrities: from Indian medical doctor/author Deepak Chopra to Hard Rock Café and House of Blues co-founder Isaac Tigrett.

A member of the San Diego Culinary Institute board of directors, Cruz also regularly devotes time as a board member of the Center for Community Solutions (CSS), an organization focused on domestic violence for which she spearheads an annual food fundraiser, “Chef Showdown.”  Isabel Cruz, her husband William and her two teenage sons, Robert and Ryan, live in San Diego.