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Maria Herrera's love of food began at her grandmother's table, where family dinners — at 5:30 p.m. sharp, no exceptions! — were a nightly ritual.
“Anything my grandma made was always top-tier,” she recalls. Traditional Mexican comfort foods were her childhood favorites: fideo and warm, brothy sopitas made from scratch. But it was her grandmother's mole that she loved most — so much so that it was requested for every birthday.
“To this day, I've never had a better one,” Herrera declares. “Ever.”
Now a mother herself, the Texas-based, self-taught chef has a Grandma-inspired mole recipe of her own, which you can find on her wildly popular TikTok channel, Pizquita de Sal. The name means “pinch of salt” in Spanish and comes from Herrera’s mother and grandmother.
“Anytime I’d ask for a recipe they always said ‘nomas échale una pizquita’ (just add a pinch) which honestly is so not helpful when trying new recipes,” she laughs.
Herrera has garnered over a million followers with her vibrant, easy-to-follow cooking videos, centered around documenting recipes for her children.
Herrera’s warm and approachable style, a departure from the “tough love” method she says is often associated with Mexican moms, has resonated with her audience.
“I make it a point to show all the key steps in my recipes, so nothing gets overlooked,” she explains. “I'm teaching in a way I would want to learn. My hope is to keep our culture and heritage alive by making these recipes accessible to everyone.”
This attitude extends far beyond the digital world. Herrera is also a consummate real-life host, regularly inviting friends and family over for personally catered game days, dinner parties, and craft nights, which she often documents on social media. Her most recent get-together was a “Tortas & Tapetes” night, fusing DIY tortas and DIY holiday doormat decorating.
“I like to use my friends as guinea pigs when I’m trying out something new,” she says. “The doormat craft idea came from a TikTok video I saw. Now that we’re all getting older and have kids, it’s harder to go out all the time. This seemed like the perfect activity — something fun and easy to do at home together.”
To prep for the event, Herrera set up two stations: one with doormat-decorating supplies like paints, stencils, and acrylic paint pens; and one with all the deconstructed torta ingredients — fluffy bolillos, juicy strips of marinated bistec, a few types of cheeses, and classic toppings like pickled jalapeños and fresh lettuce. She stocked both stations almost entirely with supplies and groceries delivered via DoorDash.
“DoorDash makes it so much easier for me as a cook because I know exactly what I’m getting,” she says. “Plus, the shopper only texts if they need to make a substitution, which is honestly the best feature. When I’m having people over, I hate having to ask my husband to grab a few last-minute things for me — it always turns into five FaceTime calls and a million texts. My Dasher had to make a couple of swaps, but gave me easy options to pick from.”
DoorDash proved especially helpful when Herrera realized just a few hours before the guests arrived that she was missing a key item: paintbrushes. A few quick taps on the app and she was back in business.
“When you’re hosting, time flies by so fast,” she says. “Being able to have someone run errands for you while you’re at home getting everything ready feels like having an assistant.”
The event was a great success, full of belly laughs, delicious food, and surprising shows of craftiness.
“I originally thought it would just be my girlfriends joining in on the painting, but the husbands joined too, and they got super into it — way more than I expected,” Herrera says. “And having a DIY torta station was such a good idea. Everyone just made their tortas exactly how they wanted, which made it so easy for me.”
Best of all? Everyone was out of the house by 9 p.m. Grandma would be proud.
PHOTO CREDIT: Courtesy of Pizquita de Sal
