Exploring Life & Business with Alejandra Graf of Piloncillo y Vainilla

Today we’d like to introduce you to Alejandra Graf.

Hi Alejandra, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I was born in Mexico City, grew up in Monterrey, and in 2010 my husband and I packed up our lives and moved to Austin. He is American but grew up in Mexico, so we were both arriving somewhere new and figuring it out together.
The real turning point had actually started earlier. My son was born with dairy allergies, and back in Mexico, about 25 years ago, long before plant-based anything was trendy, I had to learn to cook differently. I became the mom who read every label, swapped every ingredient, and quietly refused the sugary cereal and candy. I was not the cool mom. But when we got to Austin a whole new culinary world opened up for me. I deepened my knowledge, sharpened my skills, and really leaned into plant-forward cooking. Slowly, my friends started calling, asking how to swap dairy, sneak more vegetables into their kids meals, or just cook a little healthier without losing the flavor. My husband got tired of me on the phone and said start a blog. So I did.
That blog became two. Piloncillo y Vainilla, in Spanish for the US Latino community, and alecooks.com in English, both rooted in the same belief that food is one of the most powerful ways to connect to your culture, your family, and yourself. Today none of us in my family follow a strict vegan diet but we are deeply plant-forward, lots of vegetables, lots of vegan meals, and the occasional everything else. What has never changed is why I do this: real food, real stories, and recipes that make people feel at home.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Honestly, it has been anything but smooth. When we arrived in the US I was learning everything at once. A new country, a new city, a new way of doing business, a new language at a deeper level than I had ever needed before. On top of that I was teaching myself coding, web design, food photography, video editing. Nobody warns you how many skills go into running a blog. And just when we had found our footing in Austin, we moved to Houston. So it was like starting over again, but faster.
The hardest part though was something I did not fully see coming. Breaking stereotypes. There are very fixed ideas in the food world about what a Mexican cook looks like and what she puts on the table. But Mexico is an incredibly foodie country with centuries of influence from all over the world. I did not grow up with an abuela in the kitchen. I grew up in a home where we ate widely, traveled, and were curious about food from everywhere. Finding space for that version of Mexican identity, modern, plant-forward, and real, took a long time and a lot of pushing.
Meanwhile I was also settling three kids into a country where they did not speak the language, building a home that felt like ours, and figuring out what normal even looked like in this new life. It was a lot. But every single one of those hard things taught me something I still use today.

Thanks for sharing that. So, maybe next you can tell us a bit more about your business?
At its core what I have built is a small food media company. I develop recipes, create food photography, and produce videos across all major social platforms, all centered on plant-forward cooking that is practical, flavorful, and rooted in real life. Both of my blogs, Piloncillo y Vainilla in Spanish and alecooks.com in English, have been growing communities for years, and together they reach a bilingual audience that is not easy to find in one place.
I specialize in making healthy, vegetable-forward food feel approachable and genuinely craveable, not like a sacrifice. That is what I am known for. Recipes that busy home cooks actually make, photography that makes people stop scrolling, and content that connects on a cultural level without leaning on tired clichés.
On the brand partnership side I work with companies to create content that promotes their products in a way that feels natural and trustworthy, because it lives inside real recipes that real people are already cooking. That integration is something I take seriously and something my audience can feel.
I am also a cookbook author. I co-authored one cookbook in Spanish, and my first solo cookbook is on its way. That is probably what I am most proud of because it represents everything I have been building toward, a permanent, tangible record of this food, this culture, and this point of view.

What’s next?
Right now my focus is on two big things. The first is the launch and promotion of my solo cookbook, Comemos, which is a milestone I have been working toward for a long time. Getting it into the hands of readers, cooking through it with my community, and sharing the story behind it is something I am genuinely excited about.
The second is something every food blogger is navigating right now, which is figuring out how to grow and sustain an audience in a landscape that Google and AI have completely shifted. The way people search for recipes, discover content, and consume food media has changed fast, and I am deep in the work of adapting my blogs to that new reality. It is not glamorous work but it is important, and honestly I find it interesting. I have always had to learn new skills to keep up and this is just the next one.
The through line in all of it is the same thing it has always been. Showing up for a community that is hungry, literally and figuratively, for food content that reflects their real lives.

Contact Info:

• Website: alecooks.com and piloncilloyvainilla.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piloncilloyvainilla/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/piloncilloyvainilla/

Image Credits
Alejandra Graf