I bet that you couldn't resist and had to find out who's behind all this. Here we tell you who's Tía Clara, who else is behind DominicanCooking.com and CocinaDominicana.com, and a few other things you may not have known that you wanted to know. Come in, meet us:
Tia Clara's Dominican Cooking
Amazing Dominican recipes
Established in 2001, Tia Clara®'s Dominican Cooking is the oldest and largest Dominican cooking website. It contains the internet's most extensive collection of traditional Dominican recipes, articles about Dominican cuisine and taste, and about the Dominican Republic's food history, culture, and traditions.
Clara Gonzalez (Tia Clara)
Nomadic Liniera
Founder and editor of Dominican Cooking and Cocina Dominicana, Clara Gonzalez (Aunt Clara) is Dominican – born and bred – and learned how to cook at the side of many Dominican home cooks. Clara has been writing about Dominican cuisine and developing Dominican recipes for over 20 years for online and print publications. She has found it very useful to have lived in several regions of the Dominican Republic and currently resides in Punta Cana, D.R.
An Industrial Design graduate, later moving to International Logistics, Clara found her real career love in traveling around the country, asking people and writing about how they make and serve Dominican food, and tasting and photographing what Dominican cuisine has to offer. In her free time, Clara is a mom and wife.
Clara Gonzalez is co-author of the book Yo Cocino Latino (Grijalbo, 2021) and has authored three books on Dominican cooking (currently out of print): 100 Dominican Recipes, Traditional Dominican Cookery, and Aunt Clara's Dominican Recipes.
Follow Clara on: Instagram | Facebook | Pinterest | LinkedIn | Twitter | Tia Clara
Ilana Benady (Tia Ilana)
Aplatanada Gibraltarian
Originally from Gibraltar, Ilana Benady (Aunt Ilana) studied and lived in England for the best part of two decades, mostly managing to avoid the local cuisine. After graduating in Politics and Social Anthropology from the University of Kent at Canterbury, she tried her hand at journalism and travel, finally finding a niche of sorts in international development.
Her work at Oxfam's HQ in Oxford took her to the Dominican Republic, which she first visited in 1996. She settled here in 1999, living and spending time in various parts of the country, and now lives in Punta Cana with her Dominican-Gibraltarian family.
Besides our cookbooks, Ilana has also authored Expat FAQs: Moving to and Living in the Dominican Republic and Dominican Republic - Culture Smart!: The Essential Guide to Customs & Culture.
Joe L.
Colmado-less Banilejo
IT Engineer, food lover, and man-behind-the-curtains, Joe helps us keep the sites running without anything exploding, as things are wont to do in the world of computers.
Joe loves traveling and lived most of his life in Baní and Santo Domingo.
Lucas G.B.
Llanito criollo
One of a few Dominico-Gibraltarians in the world, Lucas grew up between Santo Domingo and Punta Cana. With his adventurous family, Lucas has traveled all over the Dominican Republic and explored our countryside, towns, and cities.
Lucas is a Communication and Photography student (you can see some of his photos on our site) and is in charge of our YouTube channels.
Follow Lucas on: Instagram
Occasional contributors
Wendy Soto
Serie Primera
Wendy works in the food industry and has a bit of an obsession with the magic of baking and the science of cooking meat. You can find her well-researched recipes on her blog Suspiritos. She develops Dominican recipes for our site and reviews some of our other recipes to make sure they are as great as you expect them to be.
Himilce Tejada
Capitaleña with Mocano soul
Himilce Tejada comes from Dominican food and journalism royalty, and – unsurprisingly– she has made a name as a food and life writer for Dominican newspapers and magazines.
You can find her popular weekly column on Diario Libre.
Sagrario Matos
Serie 23 Meets Barahona
Sagrario was the founder and editor of the popular Dominican culinary magazine Vanilla y Azafrán, later pivoting to national TV cooking show host, and food blogger at La Señora Bonita. She has helped us test some of our iconic Dominican recipes to make sure that they work as well as we expect and that they reflect more than one cooking style and regional flavor.
Jill W.
Sosúa Canuck
Jill W. is a Canadian and mother of two Dominican-Canadian children. She lived in Sosua, Dominican Republic, immersed in our culture and customs for many years.
We love her candid, generous, and humorous appreciation of our culture.
Our story
Tia Clara's Dominican Cooking, and twin blog CocinaDominicana de Tia Clara were founded in 2001 by Clara. Ilana joined in in 2004 as a writer.
In 2005 we published our first cookbook, and in 2007, we launched a new edition.
The present is the 11th redesign of our site.
Awards and accolades
In 2005, our site was nominated for the Arroba de Oro Award for the best Dominican website in the category of Art and Culture. The following year, we won this award.
In 2014 our blog was one of the finalists in Saveur Magazine's Best Food Blog Award in the Regional Cuisine category. In 2019, we were again a finalist, this time in the Culture category. We're the first and only Dominican food site nominated for this award.
Some mentions in the press
We do give a damn
Over the years, we have contributed to several worthy causes with the help of our wonderful readers. Read more here.
Things we live by:
- Homemade food
- Frugal living
- Earth-friendly living
- Eating local
- Cultural awareness
- Respect for all people
Contact us
Please comment on the actual post if you have anything to say about it, or write to us if you have any other questions or inquiries.