Proudly wearing his self-styled “gay tio energy,” author and chef Rick Martinez has just published his sophomore cookbook, “Salsa Daddy.” Seventy salsa (and 24 salsa-based meal) recipes pepper the book’s riotously colorful pages. Raw, cooked, historic, avant-garde, basic, complex, earthy, spicy, sassy: the salsas are as diverse as the flavors of Mexico.

“Salsa Daddy” is a saucier approach to Mexican cooking. Instead of hitting on Mexican food totems, Martinez draws on his background, identity, and creativity to discuss, tell stories, and riff on salsas, allowing the reader to digest and craft their own.

Martinez, a native of South Texas with Mexican roots, says that he was often told that he didn’t belong – not American enough, nor Mexican enough. After working in advertising, he finally

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