Photo by Danny Fulgencio
Anastacia Quiñones-Pittman, executive chef at José, was named Eater Dallas’ 2018 Chef of the Year for her culinary creativity. Her creativity lives on through her new line of stickers, Cielo.
The colorful stickers say Spanish words like “Amor” which is love and “Chingona” which is another term for a bad ass woman. The stickers include Mexican mascots like Frida Kahlo, luchadores, piñatas and the Monarch butterfly.
“COVID sucked but I learned a few things,” Quiñones-Pittman wrote in a Facebook post. “Things got lonely and depressing during isolation. I started to crave creativity again but I couldn’t do the one thing I loved most.”
After a canceled trip to Mexico and a temporarily closed restaurant, her husband, Daniel Pittman, former executive chef and co-owner of LUCK at Trinity Groves, recommended that she channel her creative energy into something else.
“So I taught myself how to make new things and Cielo was born,” she wrote. “I practiced drawing every night because, well, insomnia was real.”
Cielo stickers created by chef Anastacia Quinones-Pittman.
Chef Quiñones-Pittman says this isn’t a career change, she’ll always be a chef. This project was a therapy for her during a tough time.
“It was also a way to show my girls that you can do anything you want when you put your mind to it,” she says.
The name Cielo came from her parents’ nickname because they are each other’s little “heaven.”
Follow @CieloDallas on Instagram.
