Frijoles con Ketchup (June 2026)

Bitefully

Chef Claudia Sandoval interviews actress AngÃ©lica Celaya in this debut episode of Bitefully, exploring how food memories anchor cultural identity and personal

Key takeaways

AngÃ©lica Celaya grew up in Tucson with a Sonoran father and Yaqui mother, blending border-town cuisine with traditional Mexican dishes.
Childhood food memories include eating refried beans and tamales with ketchup, a quirk she defends as better than meatloaf sauce.
Celaya started cooking dinner for her family at 12 or 13 because both parents worked, leading to a heavy reliance on butter and salty meals.
She contrasts processed Cold War-era foods like Spam mac-and-cheese with her father's slow-cooked pozole, highlighting two distinct culinary upbringings.
Celaya discusses playing strong, unapologetic female roles on Telemundo and defending her direct acting style against traditional telenovela conventions.

Main topics

Food memory archives and cultural identity
Border-town cuisine and childhood cooking experiences
The emotional connection between food, family, and legacy

Notable quotes

Ketchup? Ketchup on tamales?

Conclusion

The episode offers a heartfelt exploration of how food anchors cultural

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:00) Welcome back to Bitefully. I'm Chef Claudia Sandoval. Every single person that comes to the table has what I call a food memory archive. Those food memories are the ones that connect us to who we are, our culture, our history, our legacy. So welcome to Bitefully. You're at the table with us. Speaker 1 (0:42) It's Chef Claudia and happy Hispanic Heritage Month. Now I'm currently up to my elbows in the Del Mar Wine and Food Festival. In fact, it's been like that for a couple of weeks now. Planning, organizing, doing all the things. So this week, I figured we could take it back. Take it way back to the very first episode of Bitefully. This episode interviews my good friend, actress, Top Chef contestant, Angelica Zelaya. We talk food, family, culture, and honestly, some food memories that made me deeply concerned about my friend. Now, if you've already heard this one, go ahead and catch up on all of our newest episodes over on YouTube and make sure you're subscribed. Next week, though, I'm back with a brand new episode because this Friday I'm interviewing Chef Mawa McQueen, as I always call her. And I cannot wait to share that episode with you. Enjoy this one. We'll see you next week. Speaker 1 (1:49) Our first guest today is a personal friend. I actually spent the night at her house last night. This morning we had coffee and that's why we were running late because we got to talking probably stuff that we should be talking here. But the fact of the matter, it's somebody that I can have true and honest conversations with. And that's exactly why she's at this table. Speaker 1 (2:08) Angelica, Speaker 2 (2:09) would you Speaker 1 (2:10) mind introducing Speaker 2 (2:10) yourself? Hi. Of course. Wow. Okay, so my name's Angelica Guadalupe Zelaya Torres. Oh, Speaker 1 (2:17) dang. She went with the straight up long Mexican name. Long Speaker 2 (2:19) Mexican name. I'm from Tucson, Arizona. Raised in the border. Dad, de Sonora, Mexico. My mom. We just found out she's half Yaqui, Pascua Yaqui. So, yeah. So I'm completely of the area. I have two older brothers and grew up with a very loud Mexican household. And then I decided to leave them all, go to Mexico City and become an actor. And yeah, for the past over 20 years, I've been working with Telemundo, with NBCUniversal, with FX. CW, Speaker 1 (2:55) and working in English and Spanish. We Speaker 2 (2:57) work in Spanish and English because that's who we are. So bicultural, bilingual, and very proud. Speaker 1 (3:04) Well, Angelica, welcome to Bitefully. I'm so excited to have you here. The whole premise of Bitefully is to really explore your food memory archive. It's what I call them. I always ask people, close your eyes for me and think of... Speaker 1 (3:21) Your first food memory. Speaker 1 (3:24) Who made it? What was it? And why did you love it? And why do you remember it? Speaker 2 (3:29) I have two different Speaker 1 (3:32) memories because Speaker 2 (3:33) my mom and dad cooked. I think I was telling you this morning, I need frijoles refritos. My dad. And as a kid, because as a kid, we are, our palates are very interesting as kids. I ate everything. I explored my palate to the point where I was like, Speaker 2 (3:52) Ketchup? Ketchup on tamales? Girl. Los tamales de carne con chile. Oh, boy. You toast them up in the oven. Okay. And then you put ketchup on there. It's better than meatloaf. And you're supposed to have ketchup with meatloaf. I'm just going to put it out there. She's like, don't knock it until you try it. Don't knock Speaker 1 (4:10) it Speaker 2 (4:10) until you try it. But. Speaker 1 (4:13) Amazing. Speaker 2 (4:13) It was frijoles refritos. Okay. With ketchup because I wanted to put ketchup on there. And my dad made the same face like, what? And I'm like. Just, and give me some bread. Bolillo. Okay. Speaker 1 (4:23) Un Speaker 2 (4:23) bolillo así recién horneado. Like, I would, like, it was, my mouth is watering. And for my mom, a pineapple upside Speaker 1 (4:32) down cake. Really? Yes. Okay, so very, this is awesome. I love this so much. Okay. You know what I love about your refritos is it's. Speaker 1 (4:44) exactly who you are. Right? And I mean, we all know, like, sometimes Mexicans, we're called beaners, right? We love our beans. Well, listen. You know what? Give me Speaker 2 (4:53) the little sash right here. I'll put it Speaker 1 (4:55) on. Same, same, same. It's so funny. One of my biggest food memories is my abuela's frijoles refritos and I don't want to cry, but... Ooh! Girl. She's literally the reason why I have this tattoo right here. Oh, my God. Hermelinda Mayorquino-Suna. She couldn't read or write. And so this was the only signature that I could pull off of her California ID, believe it or not. But frijoles refritos, I think, are one of those like very emblematic dishes from Mexico, right? Yes, people talk about mole and all these other things. But I think at your core, like you remember frijoles. Like my abuela's frijoles, like even like the people that she would visit at the doctor's office would get frijoles from my abuela. They're so specific to the person. Yes. Like how they cook them, right? Some people make them with comino and some people make them with pork lard and some people make them with oil and some people, you know, and even the way it's boiled. Yes. Right? The way they're cooked, the way they get them to the fire. So everyone adds their own little thing to it. Yeah. And then you, as this kind of Mexican-American, go and be like, let's throw some ketchup on it. Yes. Speaker 1 (5:54) I love that. But for me, los frijoles Speaker 2 (5:57) refritos with a typical flour tortilla. It's so emblematic of home. I only eat it when I go back to Tucson. Speaker 1 (6:07) Really? Speaker 2 (6:08) Yes. You Speaker 1 (6:09) know what? It's like food is just so nostalgic in that way, right? Where it holds. And this is exactly why I love it. You know, I've built my career kind of at this intersection of like food and culture and storytelling. And it's because. Food does hold those memories, right? You can close your eyes and you can think back to the first time you tried something or the first time you tasted a texture of food that like maybe was new. And especially for somebody like you who wasn't a picky eater, who was like, I'm going to try everything. Speaker 2 (6:37) Girl, when I say I tried everything, I want to I just want to come out here and say I wanted to taste everything that I thought that would. you smelled is what it was going to taste like. So there was a moment, I don't know what happened between me and my middle brother, Chunrique, his name is Jesus Enrique, but it's Chunrique. Chunrique. Chunrique. Speaker 1 (6:58) Leave it to Mexicans to do that. Speaker 2 (7:00) So we were like, infatuated with my mom and dad's perfume and cologne. Okay. And we're like, this must taste good. Yeah. So we started tasting perfume and cologne. Speaker 1 (7:10) I'm sorry, what? Yeah. Speaker 2 (7:12) we were like five years old, girl, like four or five years old. And we were like, woo, spinning. Amazing. And we were like, Yeah, because Speaker 1 (7:21) it's alcohol. Speaker 2 (7:21) It's alcohol. But we were catadores. We were catadores. Oh, is that what we're calling it? Speaker 1 (7:28) Girl, we were like, this Speaker 2 (7:30) one doesn't taste that well. So when my mom was like, later on, my mom was like, you're not going to like that taste. I'm like, you want to bet? Speaker 1 (7:39) Watch me. Watch me. I've tasted a lot of things, mom. This is amazing. Amazing. Guys, for this dish, I'm going to judge. Have a little Chanel number five in this. Speaker 1 (7:53) That is amazing. Today we're pairing it with tortillas de harina from Sonora. Oh my goodness, that's amazing. Speaker 1 (8:08) You're talking about growing up in Tucson. Your mom is Yaqui Indian. Your family is Mexicanos. But also there's kind of this Southwest style food, right? Yes. How do you feel like where you grew up shaped your perspective of food? I mean, now you live in Los Angeles. You've lived everywhere in other places, Miami, Colombia, Mexico City. You've lived in all of these different places where you've been able to try. Yes. The full gamut of like what Latino cooking is. I understand nostalgia. Do you feel like... Southwest food is Mexican food? No. Oh, Speaker 2 (8:41) really? No, Southwest food is not Mexican food. Southwest food is very, it's Southwest. It's very particular to the region. Just like they say, like mole or the pambazos or sopa de lima. You know, Mexico, and I don't think, if you're not Mexican and you've only traveled to Cancun or I don't Speaker 1 (9:03) know Speaker 2 (9:03) where. Not the same.