Alicia Maher is a Gourmand award-winning author of Delicious El Salvador: 75 Authentic Recipes for Traditional Salvadoran Cooking. She wrote and published the first Salvadoran cookbook in English in the world. Alicia was born and raised in Santa Ana, El Salvador. 

She is passionate about El Salvador's authentic food and traditions. From a young age, she learned to cook from her mother, grandmother, aunts and friends. 

In August of 2021, in Washington DC, the Ambassador of El Salvador to the United States, the honorable Milena Mayorga, awarded Alicia with a special recognition for being outstanding Salvadoran woman, for her work and effort to showcase authentic Salvadoran food to the world.

Alicia has been featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Magazine, La Opinion, EFE, Telemundo 52 Los Angeles, CNN Latino, MundoFox, The Latin Kitchen, Cook’s Cook Magazine, El Tiempo Latino, and more. Alicia was named El Salvador's Culinary Ambassador by UCLA Magazine, Revista Ella from El Salvador, Sercano TV and more.

Alicia is also a cooking teacher. She has taught at her home, Whole Foods, Surfas Culinary District, and on live TV, in Viva La Mañana, a morning show in El Salvador. She was a featured chef at the Latin Food Fest 2016. Alicia was a contributor to The Immigrant Cookbook: Recipes That Make America Great, from Interlink Publishing. She represented the millions of Salvadoran immigrants living in the US.

Alicia has lectured on Salvadoran food history, and traditions for the Culinary Historians of Southern California, at the Los Angeles Grand Central Library, and via Zoom for the Culinary Historians of San Diego, and her alma mater, UCLA's 100-year anniversary celebration. Alicia has always celebrated and recognized the rich legacy of Salvadoran family recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation.

Shortly after arriving in Southern California, she met her future husband Joseph, and they are the proud parents of three wonderful sons. Alicia is writing her second Salvadoran cookbook in English.

Alicia graduated from UCLA with a bachelor’s degree in Art History, class of 1992.

Alicia is known as El Salvador's Culinary Ambassador.

 Alicia enjoys hiking on the weekends, loves hanging out with family and friends, tending to