Josephine Caminos Oría, Argentine American founder of La Dorita Cooks in Sharpsburg, announced the release date for her new memoir titled Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses. The term sobremesa, the purposeful lingering after a meal with family and loved ones, is common in Latin and Hispanic cultures – a word that has no English equivalent. Josephine is a cookbook author, entrepreneur, and mother. In her early 40s, she took a chance on herself leaving a C-level career to make dulce de leche.
La Dorita Cooks is an all-natural line of dulce de leche products and Pittsburgh’s first resource-based kitchen incubator for start-up and early-stage food makers created by Josephine and her husband Gaston. Their immense love for food and their Argentine background inspired them to start the business back in 2009. Named after Josephine’s grandmother, La Dorita sells traditional dulce de leche made using Dorita’s original homemade recipes, that can be purchased in Giant Eagle’s across Western PA. Josephine shared these recipes to the public back in 2017 in her debut cookbook, Dulce de Leche: Recipes, Stories, and Sweet Traditions.
In addition to this, Josephine and Gaston started offering consulting services to other food start-up businesses and penned Pittsburgh’s first commercial, shared-space kitchen to all want-to-be cooks, artisanal food makers, and caterers in 2013. They help new businesses avoid costly start-up mistakes, understand how the industry operates, develop a marketing strategy, comply with State, FDA, and USDA regulations, and much more!
Sobremesa: A Memoir of Food and Love in Thirteen Courses is Josephine’s newest autobiography and cookbook scheduled to be released on May 4, 2021. Sobremesa, meaning the purposeful lingering after a meal with family and loved ones, tells the story of Josephine’s journey to returning home to Argentina and finding love with the man of her dreams, food, and herself. Sobremesa has already received early praise from fellow authors and publications.
Beth Ostrosky-Stern, Pittsburgh Native and New York Times Bestselling Author says “Sobremesa reads like a cross between magical realism and the food section of the New York Times. Delicioso!” “At once a magical matrilineage, recipe book, and love letter to Argentinian culture, Josephine’s Sombremesa is not only a moving culinary memoir, but a timely cultural portrait and call to return to a slower, more sensual relationship with our loved ones and ourselves,” says, Allie Rowbottom, author of Jell-O Girls.
Sobremesa is the perfect blend of culture and experience and will transport readers to the streets of Argentina without them having to leave the comforts of their own kitchen. Jospehine’s hope is that women who are at the crux of choosing between their personal dreams and family life will take heed from her experiences. This Eat, Pray, Love like story goes to show that the modern woman can have it all and also serves as another example of a Latin American truly finding their place in this country.
Review copies of Sobremesa at EDELWEISS+, NETGALLEY, or email mel@scribe-publishing.com.
