How a SAVEUR Article on Mexican Cooking Sparked the Ultimate Meet-Cute
A California couple share two sides of a love story that began with our 2011 issue.
This piece originally appeared in SAVEUR’s Spring/Summer 2025 issue. See more stories from Issue 204 here.
How Javier Met Paola
It was 2009, and I was in community college in Pasadena, California. I had just started freelancing in food writing, and a friend of a friend knew James Oseland, then SAVEUR’s editor-in-chief. He gave me James’ number, and I cold-called him. I’m sure James was perplexed—like, who is this 20-year-old Latino kid calling him out of the blue? But we started talking about this story about the foods of my mom’s home state, Zacatecas, Mexico. I was this young, naive street punk with no idea what I was doing, but James saw something in me.
That story was published in May 2011 (Issue No. 138) and it became the cover story. Shortly after, I got a DM on Twitter from a girl named Paola in Portland, Oregon. Her profile pic was upside down and it intrigued me. She had read my story and loved it. Her mom had roots in Zacatecas, too. We started messaging, talking about one day traveling to Chiapas to taste cacao together, and the music we were into—even though I was a Chicano from East L.A., I impressed her with my knowledge of obscure Mexican pop-punk.
Paola came to L.A. for an internship, and we decided to meet up. My Vespa happened to break down that day for the first time ever, and I was three hours late to our first date. We took the bus to Melrose for an L.A. Times food event, and we were on that cramped bus together for hours. I felt so embarrassed, but she got an authentic glimpse of who I was!
That story catapulted my career and it connected me with my soulmate. Paola is so beautiful and so different from me. She brought light into my nihilistic life and opened my eyes to many things. And yes, she’s definitely more punk rock than me. —L.A. Taco editor Javier Cabral
How Paola Met Javier
I moved to Portland, Oregon, from Guadalajara to go to art school. I was only supposed to be there for two years, but then I started getting into cooking private dinners to support myself. It was a way for me to connect and not feel so lonely. I come from a restaurant family and spent much time on the phone with my mom, talking through her recipes. My mentor, chef Cory Schreiber, suggested this magazine called SAVEUR. I subscribed, and soon my first issue arrived. It had a plate of tacos dorados on the cover and a story called “Mexico Feeds Me” inside. I looked through the magazine, reading about this guy named Javier documenting the rancho cooking of Zacatecas, where his family—and mine—are from.
I was so homesick at that point, so alone in the States. I was working so hard and feeling like everything back home in Jalisco was waiting on hold for me. I read Javier’s story with tears streaming down my face. I was so intrigued by this writer that I found him on Twitter—the profile pic was this dude with long hair on a Vespa. I messaged him, and it turns out, we had a lot in common—family from Zacatecas, both punks, both obsessed with cacao. We were kindred spirits.
After we met for the first time in L.A., he came to visit me in Portland, and in hindsight, I realized, I must have really liked this guy. I cooked him a feast: ceviche with local halibut, churros with sipping chocolate, and a birria tatemada with local lamb. I was supposed to graduate and move back to Mexico, but once I started talking to Javier and felt our deep connection, I knew that my life was about to change. It was cosmic. —Writer and recipe developer Paola Briseño González
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