Melissa Guerra says every household has its own food dialect. “Cuisine really lives within homes,” she says, and it starts with the distinct rituals and dishes of the homemaker’s family. Her own food dialect derives from the eighth-generation South Texas ranch she grew up on. “There,” she says, “we were very isolated. We actually had our own language dialect. We had our own comfort foods.” The food dialect on the ranch was based in beans and tortillas, which her family ate every day. Understanding the food dialects of people throughout Latin America inspires Guerra’s work today.

A 44-year old entrepreneur, cook, and mother to three sons, Guerra has written two Tex-Mex cookbooks, developed and hosted a cooking show about Texas’ regional cuisines, and even served as a culinary expert for a reality television show called “Texas Ranch House.” In her latest pursuit, she is continuing her investigation into Latin American cuisine and sharing what she finds. Last November, Guerra opened a new outpost of her eponymous culinary store in San Antonio’s awakening Pearl Brewery complex. She shuttles back and forth between that store and the first one, in McAllen, stopping off at the ranch where she, her husband, and their three sons live. Energetic and enthusiastic, she doesn’t seem to mind all the activity.

The new store is the latest development in an impressive culinary career that started by accident. Guerra once planned to sing for a living and attended several years of music school in New York City—as far as she could get from the South Texas ranch her family had lived on for generations. Singing didn’t pan out, but food followed naturally. “Music and food follow the same influences,” she explains. “One goes into your mouth, the other one comes out of your mouth. And they are both based on your observations and five senses.”

Guerra always had a knack for cooking. She returned to her family’s ranch and married the boy next door, as she likes to say. The family of her husband, an artist, has owned the ranch next to her family’s property for as long as anyone seems to remember. She began her culinary career by teaching cooking classes, which eventually led to television and cookbooks. Today, she lives with her family on her in-laws’ ranch and frequently travels to Mexico on shopping expeditions for her stores.

Her new store isn’t just an imports shop, though. And calling it a kitchen store doesn’t tell the whole story, either. Guerra explains that her store delivers “content” along with the cookware, jewelry, and other things it sells. “It’s a place that our customers can come and get educated,” she says. “We can talk to them.” Customers ask questions, for instance, about how to use tools, or how to make dishes, and if the staff at the shop doesn’t know the answer, they find out.

That research is Guerra’s favorite pursuit, one she would like to continue in other ways, beyond the stores. One day, she hopes to launch a line of high-quality imported Latin American food. Perhaps a line of sauces, too. Ultimately, she’d love to get back to television. This time, though, she wants to take the show and the research on the road. “It would be awesome to study the indigenous with the European influence,” she says, beginning to sound more like an academician than a cooking-show host, a cookbook author, or a kitchen-store proprietor. “I want to be out there in the field,” she says.