Latina Sisters Bring Joy of Food
While Creating Their Own Business Opportunities
By Robert Waddell, September 28, 2009
 Opposites attract for a reason: maybe it’s the magnetic pull of polarities or the ying and yang difference that draw dissimilar poles together for ultimate balance. For Sisters Andrea and Selina Hernandez it was their passion for food and cooking that brought them together as entrepreneurs, television producers and culinary wiz kids with the creation of their Manhattan cable cooking show “Sister You Can Cook” and their catering business “My Sister’s Creations.”
Andrea and Selina started preparing and creating a multitude of elaborate desserts for family dinners and Thanksgiving. Growing up Andrea and Selina said that they lived separate lives even though they first learned to cook with their mother.
“This is something we’ve always done even when we were younger helping out mom,” said Andrea. “You put things together. You wing it and figure it out. I knew I wanted to do something with food.”
At 14, Chef Andrea earned an internship at “Gabriel’s” restaurant in mid-town Manhattan. “From there I just knew,” said Andrea.
Around 2004, Selina, the eldest, was visiting family in Boston when she saw a local cable cooking show and the sisters soon discovered the joys of public access. Since then, they’ve cooked on air and produced over 200 “Sisters You Can Cook” 30 minute television shows for Channel 56, Manhattan Neighborhood Cable, which airs every Sunday morning at 10. They said that they’ve been recognized on the street by fans and their viewers hardly ever ask for autographs but are more inclined to ask for cooking advice. Their studio is their mother’s kitchen where they grew up and first learned to cook.
“We want to invite you in to make cooking fun, simple and easy,” said Selina. “We want to make them feel they’re in our kitchen. We make mistakes but we don’t cut that out. We incorporate that into the show. It’s about keeping the reality of cooking.”
 In 2005 their catering business “My Sister’s Creations” was born. Andrea and Selina have cooked and served for a multiplicity of events at Julia de Burgos Cultural Center, El Museo del Barrio, the China Club, Women of El Barrio and nearly 50 other parties in the last 4 years.
“There’s so much we wanted to try,” said Andrea. “I’ll take a basic cheese cake recipe and I’ll tweak it and we have a lot of our own things.”
Selina, the bubbly sister who studied drama and mass media at Hofstra University on Long Island, and Andrea, the more reserved yet focused sister who graduated from Johnson and Wales culinary arts school in Providence, Rhode Island, pooled their resources and their love for food to create a Latina owned and operated dynasty based on the premise that “Life tastes better with food!,” their company’s motto.
(As for the creation of a TV show and catering business, the sisters, who grew up in El Barrio and the Bronx, Andrea might have done a double take then looked at Selina, who enthusiastically encouraged her sister; a lot like Lucy pushing Ethel into another hair brain scheme but for Andrea and Selina, it worked.)
In this sisterly partnership, there is no brains and brawn because both Andrea and Selina equally share in the distribution of labor, cooking, serving, and all the while passing on to those who enjoy their meals, the sister’s own joy and love for food and cooking. If the event is big enough, even their parents have come out to cook and serve.
Their repertoire of American, Caribbean, Italian, Soul and Puerto Rico cuisine includes appetizers, entrees and desserts. One can see them each Sunday morning on Manhattan Cable whipping, dicing and chopping in their family’s Bronx kitchen splendid meals. The sisters make the whole enterprise seem easy and appetizing.
For example, on one autumn show, Andrea and Selina showed their audience how to cook apple biscuits, black beans with green plantains and carne guisado. Together, the sisters are confident on-air teachers who tend to finish each other’s sentences. The sisters together are as upbeat and savory as another one of their creations “Sister Spice,” which includes salt, oregano, pepper, onion powder and garlic that can be used to season most any dish. The low key on air performances of Andrea and Selina end each show with the audience confidence builder exclamation: “If we can cook it, so can you!”
 As for their catering business, since “My Sister’s Creations” is relatively new, Andrea and Selina say that their rates are reasonable.
“We’re not extremely over priced. We work with any budget,” said Selina.
For the future, the sisters would like to expand their show to PBS, one day open a restaurant and continue to pass on to others their culinary skills. Their next television show will highlight cooking on a budget during the current recession.
“I think we’re a good balance,” said Selina. “Even our personalities, sometimes I’m like ‘yea we can do it’ but sometimes I’m laid back but Andrea is more structured.”
“She has big hopes and big dreams,” said Andrea of her sister. “I’m kind of the reality of it all because...”
Then Selina finished Andrea’s sentence with, “there has yet to be anything I said we’re going to do, cook that we haven’t done yet….We get the job done.”
Certainly for Andrea and Selina Hernandez, cooking is an art on so many levels where they’ve pooled their resources, created a business partnership and made delicious food together as a team.
“If you gave me five ingredients,” said Andrea. “I’m going to have those flavors blend together and please as many of your taste buds as possible….and make it look as good as possible.
“Everything has a flow. You have to find out what works so you can duplicate it.”
This story was developed through the Education Beat Writing Fellowship at the New York Community Alliance. |
