Sandra Gutiérrez’s Tortilla Press

Between 1985 and 2016

For chef and author Sandra Gutiérrez, a tortilla press is an essential tool for Southern-Latino cooking. She traces the development of this late twentieth-century culinary tradition to the growth of the Latinx population in the southeastern United States. As detailed in her cookbook, The New Southern-Latino Table, ingredients, tools, and cooking techniques of the American South and twenty-one Latin American countries fuse into new foods and flavors. Gutiérrez gives tortillas a new twist with this cast-aluminum press, labeled underneath with her first name in red. To form a tortilla, place a ball of dough between the press’s two round, flat plates. Close and pull the long-handled lever to flatten it into the Latin American staple. Along with her cast-iron skillet (2017.14.1) and biscuit cutters (2017.14.2a-c), Gutiérrez’s tortilla press was on display at the Anacostia Community Museum’s exhibition, Gateways/Portales, from December 2016 to January 2018.