Mely Martinez started her blog, Mexico in My Kitchen, in 2009 for her teenage son, hoping that someday he will use it to recreate the Mexican food his "mama" made for the family. She was born and raised in the city of Tampico, Tamaulipas, and started helping in the kitchen at a very young age, since she was the oldest daughter of eight children. She spent summers at her grandmother's farm in the state of Veracruz, where part of the daily activities included helping grind the corn to make masa.

At the age of twenty, Mely moved to southern Mexico, where she worked as a teacher. This job gave her the opportunity to travel to all the states in the Yucatan Peninsula and enjoy its excellent and unique cuisine. After some years there, she lived in other states in Mexico, as well as traveling to most of them. By then, she had moved twenty-nine times! Mely enjoys cooking basic meals that are well known to most people in Mexico. Her recipes are created from her own knowledge and utilise easy-to-find ingredients. She lives in Dallas, Texas.