Two Women. One Casa.

Chef Silvana Salcido Esparza (Chef Silvana) has spent more than three decades cooking, creating, teaching, and protecting the culinary traditions of Mexico. Born into generations of bakers, her work is rooted in the understanding that food carries culture, memory, history, and responsibility.

As chef and owner of Phoenix's celebrated Barrio Café for more than twenty years, Silvana helped change how Mexican cuisine was understood in the United States. Her work earned nine James Beard Award nominations and national recognition, but her impact has always extended beyond the plate through community activism, public art, food justice, and her commitment to protecting and passing forward Mexican culinary knowledge.

At Casa Salcido, Chef Silvana is the culinary and creative force behind our food experiences, gatherings, events, and Taller de Cocina Mexicana. Whether she is developing a menu, teaching neighborhood children, cooking for fourteen people around her table, or imagining an entirely new experience, Chef creates through food.

Her philosophy is simple:

“I can't keep it if I don't give it back.”

Dra. Serina Payan Hazelwood (Doctora Payan) is a scholar, educator, regenerative designer, and community gatherer whose work explores the relationships among food, land, water, culture, education, and community.

She holds a PhD in Sustainability Education and an M.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies, is completing an M.S. in Regenerative Design, and earned her Permaculture Design Pro Certificate from Oregon State University. Her work is grounded in Indigenous Knowledges, decolonial and liberatory praxis, rematriation, and the understanding that humans are participants within ecosystems rather than separate from them.

At Casa Salcido, Serina is the educational and regenerative force behind the ecosystem. She guides the property's permaculture design, food forest, medicinal gardens, water stewardship, animal relationships, apothecary and botánica, and the continuing work of bringing Casa Salcido into deeper reciprocity with the land.

She is also the person who helps turn an idea into an experience. Serina works with retreat hosts and collaborators to develop gatherings at Casa Salcido, coordinating logistics, facilitating retreats, supporting educational programming, and helping guests move through the Casa with intention.

Her work continually returns to one question:

What does it mean to be a good relative?