“Latin-Pacific Fusion Cuisine”
Cuban-born Sonia Martínez has spent her entire adult life studying, preparing and teaching about food -- from the Afro-influenced Spanish fare of her birthplace in Cienfuegos, Cuba, to the Southern-Americana cookery of Florida and South Carolina and the tropical flavors of her present home, Hawai’i.
Her experiences have led her to bring together a blend of cuisines, including the elements of Pan-Asian regions, the Caribbean and the American South, which has been described as Latin-Pacific Fusion Cuisine.
“In preparing Hawaiian cuisine, she blends influences from the nouvelle French kitchen, from Chinese cooking, and her native Cuba to create delicious food in Hawaii’s hapa (mixed) tradition”,
wrote Robert McGarvey in A Taste of Hawaii for Islands Magazine’s February 2000 issue.
Through the years, she honed her skills by attending classes under several well-known teachers, chefs and cookbook authors, including Shirley O. Corriher, Giuliano Bugialli and Jacques Pepin, and has been privileged to serve as assistant to several of them during their class presentations at her own cooking schools.
She also attended a week of intensive classes at the Wei Chuan Cooking School in Taipei, Taiwan where she was inspired to open her own school.
Sonia has owned cooking schools and kitchen/gourmet shops since 1980, both in Orangeburg, South Carolina and Miami Lakes, Florida and served as manager for two other kitchen/gourmet shops in Miami and Coral Gables, Florida.
With her son, Anthony Mathis, she owned and operated the Akaka Falls Inn in Honomu, Hawai’i for several years. The Inn housed her cooking school, a Bed & Breakfast, and a deli and gourmet gift shop. (The Akaka Falls Inn burned down in July 2000. Plans are to rebuild sometime in 2003; in the meantime classes are being held, temporarily, in other locations on the Big Island)
Sonia is a long-time member of the prestigious International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP).
She writes the weekly food column Hele Mai ‘Aha ‘Aina! (Come Join the Feast!) for The Hawaii Tribune-Herald of Hilo, Hawai’i.
Her monthly food column TROPICAL TASTE has appeared since early 1999 in another local newspaper, The Hamakua Times of Honoka’a, and for almost three years she was a contributor to The Hawai’i Fishing News magazine of Honolulu with her food column, The aFISHionado!
Sonia has authored "Tropical Taste," a cookbook based on three years’ worth of monthly columns for The Hamakua Times. The book is available by contacting her directly and in several local shops.
Presently, she is working on compiling and editing a mango cookbook, adding and updating another year’s worth of columns to the “Tropical Taste” cookbook, catering, teaching cooking classes, writing her various columns and adding to her ever-growing cookbook collection.
For a brochure detailing classes available and prices, please e-mail
Sonia Martinez
akakainn@verizon.net