Photo by TREVOR KAPRALOS Juan Ortiz, owner of the Family Grocery, on Bleecker Street in Utica. He is a native of the Dominican Republic.

Food means family

By JESSICA RYEN
Observer-Dispatch

For Hispanic people, food means family, says Juan Ortiz, the owner of Family Grocery on Bleecker Street in Utica.

In the Dominican Republic, where Ortiz is from, the extended family gathers three times a day to eat. Businesses often close at noon so families can be together for lunch, he says.

Ortiz, 47, moved to America in 1990, settling in Utica in 1992, joining more than 3,000 Hispanic residents.

Ortiz — who speaks only Spanish to his wife, Grace, and their two sons, Roberto and Juan Jr. — often prepares his native dishes for his family. But he also cooks up other ethnic dishes, getting tips from his favorite television show "Emeril Live."

"I watch him every night," Ortiz says of The Food Network show.

And there’s one more thing Ortiz picks up from the cooking guru.

"He teaches me English," he says with a smile.