After two years of "blogger's block", I am back.

I have started a new chapter in my life. After many years of giving Mexican cooking classes in various places, I took the leap and opened up a cooking school in San Miguel de Allende, where I have been living for the last 10 years. I am very excited and full of energy and new ideas.

La Piña Azul Escuela de Cocina

Welcome, come on in!

Photo and text Brenda Sexton

West at the entrance to her new cooking school, La Piña Azul, and in her traditional mayora's (the near legenday women of the kitchen) clothing. The apron is from her nursing days, 50 years ago; her

lace head wrap was made by her grandmother 100 years ago.

Hollywood and Moctezuma's Pie

Recently I catered a dinner for a crowd from Hollywood. A well-known producer was celebrating her husband’s significant birthday with a few close friends in one of San Miguel’s most stunning homes. They wanted Mexican food, which pleased me tremendously, as this is when I am in my element.

The celebratory evening began with a callejoneada that included mojigangas, a tequila burro and mariachis, followed by dinner. Hollywood was impressed and had a blast!

The following day, before the group returned to California, they were served a taquisa (taco bar) in the casa’s gardens. As the visitors returned to their rooms to pack, a guest came over and told me that when he was a youngster a famous Mexican actress had cooked dinner for his family in Los Angeles. It was the best Mexican food that he had ever had. My interest was piqued. Who was the actress and what had she cooked? He could not remember. Dolores del Rio or Maria Felix? No, it was not them. Then he remembered. Her name was Lupita, and she had been featured on a postage stamp.

After the group had departed, I asked my friend (who had planned their stay) who had I been talking to? He was the son of William Wyler. No wonder he had had a famous actresses cooking for him! William Wyler was a director, screenwriter and producer, a master craftsman of cinema. 

A few of the films he directed were Ben-Hur, The Best Years of Our Lives, Funny Girl, How to Steal a Million, Mrs. Miniver, Roman Holiday, Wuthering Heights and Jezebel.

That Lupita had been cooking Mexican food for such a Hollywood giant sparked my curiosity. This dinner must have occurred in the mid-fifties or early sixties, and at that time, Mexican food was rarely considered befitting for upper-class dinner tables. My friend, Diana Kennedy, an award-winning expert on Mexican cuisine, told me that she learned this when she moved to Mexico City in 1957. Invitations to dinners in private homes included mostly European cuisines but not Mexican.

How did Lupita Tovar, her stage name, born in 1910, in the small Oaxacan town of Matias Romero, make it to Hollywood? At least I understood why she had cooked Mexican food for her friends in California. Oaxacans take great pride in their culture and food has always been integral and still is to this day.

While researching Lupita’s background I discovered a personal telephone interview with Michael G. Ankerich on his blog  “Close-ups and Long Shots”, where she told her amazing journey.

Ankerich asked if she had had ambitions to become an actress. She replied: Going to a school of nuns, you don’t think about being an actress. I had no ambitions about being an actress. Then, when I was about 16, I went to another school. The instructor taught dancing, gymnastics, which we didn’t have with the sisters. I loved it. That was my first ambition, being a dancer.

 Robert J. Flathery, a very successful documentary filmmaker and with Fox Studios, was in Mexico and spotted Lupita in a school play. He made some screen tests of her and entered them into the studio’s competition. Lupita won, and was awarded a contract with Fox Studios in Hollywood.

Her father would have none of it. However, after his family and village counsel persuaded him that it would be a once-in-a-lifetime educational experience, he caved in, giving Lupita his blessing, but only after declaring that her grandmother would be her chaperone.

From then on, Lupita’s life became a roller coaster Hollywood ride. I started out making $150 a week. They paid my grandmother $25 a week for being with me. My father had never seen so much money. Of course, I sent all my money home, I just kept very little. We lived very modestly.

Lupita took her new life as an actress very seriously and worked ardently at it. I started taking dancing lessons from Mr. Cansino (Rita Hayworth’s father, ever wonder why she was such a good dancer?). I tried to learn English and do the best I could. Then a big change happened to the film Industry, the “Talkies” films with sound. Lupita was fearful of the change because of her accent. However, Universal Studios began dubbing films into Spanish to expand their market into Latin American countries, this gave Lupita the opportunity to continue working. Then the studio began to make films with Spanish actors, also featuring Lupita, on the same lot.

Lupita returned to Mexico for the premiere of “The Cat Creeps” (La Voluntad del Muerto) with Antonio Moreno and she became an instant celebrity. Universal offered her more roles, and against her father’s will, she returned to Hollywood. She had come to enjoy her independence.

Hollywood was on a roll, literally. They decided to shoot the film “Dracula” with English-speaking actors during the day and Spanish-speaking actors at night, on the same set. This was very, very difficult because I always needed my sleep — 10 hours. It was a complete change because I had to sleep in the daytime. I was actually frightened by the sets. I would go to work about an hour early and sit there and try to concentrate. It was very dark and scary. We had our dinner at midnight. We left in the morning before the English cast came in. Imagine a Mexican having to eat comida at midnight? Que horror, I can so feel for her.

Lupita came back to Mexico to star in Santa (1931), the country’s first talking film.

They called her the “Sweetheart of Mexico.” The soundtrack for the film was composed by Augustin Lara and his haunting song “Santa” is still popular today. The film propelled Lupita into Mexican movie stardom, which included the honor of her image on a postal stamp.

Lupita settled in Los Angeles after her marriage to Paul Kohner, the founder of the most successful talent agency in Hollywood.

Kohner and William Wyler had emigrated together on the same boat from Europe to the United States, the land of opportunity, which they found with daring and innovative ideas and hard work. They were life-long friends and this is why, one evening, Lupita and her sister were cooking Mexican food for the Wyler family.

After some e-mails, I heard back through Lupita’s son that the dinner most likely had been “Pastel Moctezuma and huitlacoche.” This was helpful, but still vague. However, it inspired me to create a variation on Moctezuma's pie dedicated to Lupita, “Pastel Lupita de tortillas y huitlacoche.”

The date that Ankerich had interviewed Lupita by phone was July 28, 2013, she was 103 years old. This July 27 she will be 104! When he asked her how she was doing she answered: Carrying on. Keep carrying on wonderful Lupita and have a very happy birthday!

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This article was printed in La Atención, San Miguel de Allende, Friday June 20. 2014
It was also printed in Spanish, which I translated with the help of my Spanish teacher Concepción Perez, and it was edited by Jesus Ibarra, editor for La Atención.

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Hollywood y el pastel Moctezuma

Recientemente ofrecí un servicio de comida(banquete) para un grupo de (personas provedentes) de Hollywood. Se trataba de la fiesta de cumpleaños que una renombrada productora de cine, organizaba a su esposo, con algunos amigos en una de las más magnificas casas de San Miguel. Pidieron comida mexicana, lo que me agrado tremendamente, pues es mi “mero mole”.

La celebración inició con una callejoneada que incluía mojigangas, el burro con tequila y los mariachis, seguida por la cena. El groupo estaba impresionado y eufórico.

Al diá siguiente, antes de que regresaran a California, tuvieron una “taquisa” en el jardín de la casa. Al terminar uno de los huéspedes se me acercó y me contó que cuando él era joven, una famosa actriz mexicana había cocinado para él y su familia en Los Ángeles – “Fue la mejor comida mexicana que jamás he comido”dijo. Logró picar mi  curiosidad. ¿Quién sería esa actriz y qué platillo habría cocinado? El hombre no pudía recordarlo. ¿Dolores del Río o María Félix? No. No era ninguna de ellas. se acordó. Su nombre era Lupita Tovar, y había un timbre postal con su rostro.

Depués de que el grupo se había ido le pregunté a mi amiga, que había organizado la estancia quién era la persona con que había yo estado platicando. Me dijo que su nombre era David Wyler, hijo del director William Wyler y que no tenía idea de que una actriz Mexicana huhiera cocinando para él. Algunas de las películas que él dirigió fueron: Ben Hur, 1959. Los mejores años de nuestra vida (The Best Years of Our Lives, 1946). Jezabel La loba (The Little Foxes, 1941). Cumbres borrascosas (Wuthering Heights, 1939).

Qué Lupita hubiera preparado comida mexicana para un gigante de Hollywood aumentó mi curiosidad. Esta comida debió haber ocurrido a mediados de los 50 o inicio de los 60, y, en aquel tiempo, la comida mexicana raramente era considerada apropiada para las mesas de clase alta, según me dijo mi amiga, Diana Kennedy, experta en cocina mexicana y ganadora de imortantes premios.

¿Cómo fue que Lupita Tovar, nacida en 1910, en Matías Romero, un pequeño pueblo de Oaxaca, habia llegado a Hollywood? Investigando acera de Lupita descubrí una entrevista con ella, realizada vía telefónica por Michael G. Ankerich en su blog “Close-ups and Long Shots”, (“Tan cerca y tan lejos”) donde ella le contaba su increíble trayectoria.

Ankerich le preguntó si ella había deseado ser actriz. Ella respondió: - “Cuando vas a una escuela de monjas, no piensas en llegar a ser una actiz. Jamás me pasó por la mente. Después cuando teniacomo 16 años fui a otra escuela en donde un maestro me enseñó danza y gimnasia lo que nunca había tenido con las monjas. Me encantó. Fue mi primera vez quise ser bailarina”.

Robert J. Flatherty, un exitoso productor de documentales de los estudios Fox, visitó México y puso su ojos en Lupita durante una obra escolar. Le hizo algunas tomas y las metió en un concurso Que Lupita ganó, siendo premiada con un contrato para los estudios Fox en Hollywood. Su padre no estaba de acuerdo. pero la familia lo persuadieron de que sería una experiencia única en su educación. Al fin le dio la benedición a Lupita con la condición que su abuela fuera con ella de chaperona.

La vida de Lupita en Hollywood fue como una montaña rusa. –“Empecé ganando 150 dólares a la semana y le pagaban a mi abuela 25 dólares a la semana por acompañarme. Por su puesto, yo enviaba todo mi dinero a casa, sólo me quedaba con un poquito. Mi abuela y yo vivíamos muy modestamente. Mi padre nunca había visto tanto dinero junto.

Lupita tomó muy seriamente su nueva vida como actriz y empezó a trabajar incansablemente. “Comencé tomando clases de danza con el Sr. señor Cansino (papádre de Rita Hayworth). Traté de aprender inglés e hice lo mejor que pude. Entonces hubo un gran cambio la industria del cine: las películas habladas y con sonido. Lupita tenía miedo del cambio por su acento. Como sea, los Estudios Universal empezaron a doblar las peliculas al español para expandir su mercado dentro de los países latinoamericanos; esto le dio a Lupita la oportunidad de continuar trabajando, puez se empezaron a la par versiones en español de las peliculas con actores latinos, incluyendo a Lupita.

Lupita regresó a México para la premiere de “La voluntad del muerto” que hizo con Antonio Moreno y se convirtió de inmediato en celebridad. Los estudios Universal le ofrecieron más papeles, y a pesar de la oposición de su padre, regresó a Hollywood, empezóando a disfrutar de su independencia.

Hollywood la envolvió literalmente. El estudio decidió que filmara “Drácula” con actores de habla inglesa –Bela Lugosi- durante el día y con actores de habla hispana –Lupita y Antonio Moreno- en la noche, en el mismo set. –“Esto fue muy difícil porque yo siempre he necesitado dormir 10 horas y ahora tenía que dormir durante el día. Fue terrible. Comíamos a media noche y

salíamos en la mañana antes de que el elenco americano llegara”.

Lupita regresó a México para protagonizar Santa (1931), la primera película hablada en el país. La llamaban “la Novia de México”. La música para la película fue compuesta por Augustín Lara que incluyó su melancólica canción “Santa” popular aun en nuestros días. La película lanzó a Lupita como estrella del cine mexicano, lo cual le valió la inclusion de su imaginen en un timbre postal.

Lupito se instaló en Los Ángeles depués de su matrimonio con Paul Kohner, el fundador de la más exitosa agencia de talentos en Hollywood. Kohner y William Wyler habían emigrado juntos en el mismo barco de Europa a los Estados Unidos, en donde ambos desarrollan ideas atrevidas e inovadoras y trabajaron muy duro. Fueron amigos toda su vida y por eso, una tarde, Lupita y su hermana Sarita cocinaron comida mexicana para la familia Wyler en su casa de Bel-Air.

Después de algunos correos electrónicos, el hijo de Wyler obtuvo respuesta del Pancho Kohner, hijo de Lupita y productor de cine quien le dijo que los platillos que probablemente haya cocinandoLupita aquella tarde, fueron el la comida que más le había gustado, fue Pastel Moctezuma y huitlacoche. Esto arrojaba alguna luz sobre el asunto pero era aún muy vago. De cualquier forma me inspiró para crear una variación del “Pastel Moctezuma” dedicado a Lupita, “Pastel Lupita de tortillas y huitlacoche”.

Ankerich entrevistó a Lupita via teléfonica  el 28 de julio de 2013. Ella tenía 103 años, ¡Este 27 de julio ella cumplirá 104! Cuando él le preguntó a ella qué estaba haciendo ella contestó – “viviendo”-. ¡Continúa viviendo maravillosa Lupita!y pase un muy feliz cumpleaños!

Up close with Rick Bayless

This article was published in "La Atención" San Miguel de Allende Mexico, March 21. 2014

Rick Bayless - Kirsten West

Celebrity Chef Rick Bayless will be in San Miguel de Allende to participate in Mesa Abierta, a three-day culinary festival to be held here in various restaurants and locations from March 19-21.

Before I permanently moved to SMA, I was living in Chicago and had the dream job of being the Test Kitchen Director with Rick Bayless for 8 years, testing thousands of true Mexican recipes, oh yes and testing and testing and one more time back to the stove.

I clearly remember the moment when I spotted Rick’s first cookbook “Authentic Mexican” in 1987 at the fabulous Italian “Rizzoli” bookstore in posh South Coast Plaza in California. When I took he cookbook of the shelf and looked through it, I knew I had found a treasure trove of recipes. I immediately started cooking from the book. This chef from Oklahoma City and me, the curious and passionate cook from Germany, I realized have one thing in common: we really love Mexican food. My love for Mexican food had begun many years earlier in Mexico where I literally fell in love at first bite.

Years later as fate sometimes has it, I got to meet Rick Bayless when a mutual friend introduced us on a visit in Oaxaca. We became family friends and a few years later I moved from Los Angeles to Chicago to begin the said dream job as Test Kitchen Director.

As Rick tells it, when he was a teenager his family took a vacation trip to Mexico City where he fell in love with the vibrant culture and cuisine of what was then the largest city in the world. Over the years many more trips on his own followed and his honeymoon was spent crisscrossing Mexico and living in the country for 5 years as well, relentlessly culling recipes from market vendors, home cooks and restaurants for his first cookbook, which was published in 1987, the same year he and his wife Deann opened their restaurant “Frontera Grill” in Chicago.

Since then he has won every possible Culinary Award from the James Beard Foundation, the Oscars of the culinary world; chef of the year, best restaurant in the US, humanitarian of the year, and the list goes on. A TV show “Mexico-One Plate at a Time” on Public Television followed, now in it’s successful 14. Year.

President Barak Obama invited him to cook a Mexican dinner at the White House for visiting president Felipe Calderón. He was awarded the order of the Aztec Eagle (Orden Mexicana del Águila Azteca) in 2012, which the Mexican government bestows on foreigners promoting Mexican culture aboard.

Whenever I mentioned my work with Rick, many times the response to this was: “How lucky that he became so famous “.

Let me tell you, and this I can tell from having been up-close, luck had very little to do with this.

In Hollywood they call it the 10-year overnight success when suddenly an actor appears in the limelight after many years of hard work. This truly applies to Rick and his wife Deann.

They started with driving a U-Haul from Oklahoma City loaded with used restaurant equipment, bought from his family, to Chicago. They rented a small storefront in a then derelict area of Chicago and with Deann’s family helping them making it as inviting and cheerful as possible. When some of the artwork Rick had collected in Mexico looked too lost and small on the walls, they painted large colorful frames on the wall around them to make them look bigger.

Rick trekked to the produce market early in the morning and then cooked on the line until late at night. It did not take long after the first diners had tasted his food for the word to get out about his delicious food and guests braved the trip into the not so great neighborhood. From the start Rick began to employ and train his staff to make sure they understood they were not serving cheese smothered combination plates but true Mexican cuisine. To deepen his staffs understanding of Mexican culture and cuisine, he began once a year, and still does to this day after 26 years, intensive 4-5 day culinary learning tours to different regions of Mexico. In-house training session with the kitchen staff and front of the house are still ongoing on a weekly base. This has resulted in a highly trained, well-informed and loyal staff at his restaurants. Not only that, but also a highly engaged staff, as cooks are encouraged to contribute suggestions to the monthly changing menus. For research, they have free access to the cookbook library, which houses probably the largest private Spanish language cookbook collection in the US.

Rick also began to encourage local farmers to bring their products to the restaurant. If it was something that did not fit into the Mexican menu, he passed on the foods to his staff all the while urging the growers to try growing vegetables and fruits he could use on his menus. Today he receives an abundance of fresh products at his door, the most amazing ones probably are tomatillos, grown by Amish farmers and the highly prized huitlacoche which one his former executive chefs, with the initial instructions of a mycologist (the corn fungus used to be only occurring randomly), is now able to grow on her farm.

Two years after the opening of “Frontera Grill”, Rick and Deann added the white tablecloth “Topolpbampo”, which took Mexican cuisine to new heights. 22 years later “Xoco” (the little sister) came along, serving tortas, caldos, churros and chocolate, Mexican street food at its best. All three restaurants are in the same building and as long as Rick is in the house, he never stops making sure all is as it should be.

This is the kind of  “luck” it takes to become one of the most successful chefs and restaurateurs in the US, to turn a derelict neighborhood into Chicago’s Restaurant Row and to help farmers to provide many restaurants with their products, which mean they can make a living being full time farmers.

To become successful as a chef or in any profession, it takes hard work and keeping standards high, only this way can the world be spared from mediocrity.

To find out more about Rick’s dinner go to http://www.mesamerica.mx/2014/en/mesaabierta/

The Slow Food Movement is Picking Up Speed

In recent years Slow Food is definitely talked about more than ever, but for many it still is not clear what the term slow food exactly means. There are the perceptions of slow growing food and slow cooking food. After all, we have slow cookers and even slow service in restaurants.

The Slow Food movement started 27 years ago in Italy. Roman citizens started protesting to a situation that we are faced with in San Miguel, the planned opening of a McDonalds fast-food franchise next to their much beloved historic landmark, the Spanish Steps in the San Marcos Square.

Carlos Petrini, a journalist, was among a group of very outraged Roman citizens. However, instead of using signs to picket and protest, they decided to protest in a very different, yet effective and deliciously proactive way. Petrini and his fellow protesters brandished bowls of penne and other home-cooked Italian dishes to demonstrate their culinary and social importance which was in danger of getting lost to consumption of fast and homogenized foods.

What a great idea! Maybe in San Miguel de Allende we should have parked one of our busy taco stands outside the proposed McDonalds location in the historic center. With the help of mariachis, the message would have been clear. The historic center should remain the cultural heritage of San Miguel, including with its local family-owned restaurants and stores.

After the protest the Italians began to look at all the flavorful, traditionally produced foods from the different regions of their country that had made Italian food one of the most popular cuisines in the world. These foods were beginning to disappear in the trail of industrialized food production and fast food operations.

A solution for preventing these severe losses needed to be found and three years later 15 nations signed a manifesto in Paris. The essence of their mission statement was: “Our defense should begin at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavors of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food.”

Today, Slow Food has grown into an impressive global movement. There are over more than 100,000 Slow Food members in 150 countries working for good, clean and fair food. Their goal is to help producers of traditional foods to make good products, in clean environments and receive a fair price for their efforts so they can provide for their families and educate their children.

My personal century-old family history is very closely tied to growing and garnering food. My father’s ancestors in the Bavarian region of Germany were farmers and on my mother’s Danish side they were farmers and fishermen. 

I have worked on farms, too, in the family tradition and know what hard and back-breaking work this is. Hacking at frozen soil to harvest sugar beets in freezing weather with clothes not fit for the cold, always made me wonder why farmers are not highly respected and paid fair wages for their harvest. Here we were providing affluent tables with their much coveted sugar, yet we were covered in mud, freezing cold, hungry and tired.

Photo Getty Images -that's just how it was, back braking.

Carlos Petrini, president of the Slow Food movement, is trying to make the world understand that we have to respect and support the persons who grow the food that sustains us and to make sure they can earn a decent living for their hard work. For that reason I am a Slow Food member in support of this cause.

In 1999 Slow Food started to catalogue traditionally produced foods in Italy that were on the brink of extinction and decided to protect them from disappearing. They formed what they called Presidia (meaning in Latin “garrison” or “fort”) singling out producers of traditional foods and providing them with assistance for better development of their products and marketing tools to make them economically viable.  This support system now has been applied in over 75 countries in the world.

Mexico today has five Presidia.

Vanilla from Chinantla in Oaxaca. It’s the only region in the world where vanilla grows wild. This might mean that the area is the origin of the vanilla plant. The Aztec emperor Moctezuma demanded regular tribute of vanilla from the people of Chinantla.

Cacao from Contalpa, Tabasco. After the devastating floods in 2007, Slow Food stepped in, organizing fundraisers to help the growers restore their lost cacao trees.

Puebla Norte Sierra Native Bees Honey. The art of bee keeping was highly developed in Mexico and most varieties were stingless. The biodiversity in the mountains of the Puebla Sierra Norte is a delicious buffet for local bees to garner pollen to bring back to their hives and turn them into their highly regarded honey.

Seri Fire Roasted Mesquite. The Seri people of Sonora are eking out a living in an area that has less than 100 ml (6 inches) of annual rain. Relying on planting crops is not an option in this region. Fortunately, they have the Pacific Coast for fish and seafood. However, the Mesquite tree provides them with beans which when dried is milled into flour for making tortillas.

Tehuacán  Amaranth. This is most likely one of the oldest cultivated grains in the world. In Tehuacán it has been traced back to being cultivated 6000 years ago. This grain is a whole food, it has accompanied astronauts on their space missions, just in case they run out of junk food up there.

The amaranth plant that went to Chicago to grow in Rick Bayless' garden 

Mr. Petrini was recently on a multi city visit to Mexico. He attended “Mesamérica” a gastronomic summit meeting of chefs in Mexico City, a Slow Food event in Puebla and “Morelia en Boca” an international gastronomic festival. I attended this 3-day festival and as a member of the press was invited to listen to Mr. Petrini’s talk to a large group of students from one of Morelia’s leading culinary schools. His passionate talk in, Mr. Petrini’s own words, his best “italiañol”, he made it very clear that the situation is urgent and we are running out of time.

Carlos Petrini, press conference "Morelia en Boca 2013"

He vehemently addressed the danger of Mexico losing its over hundreds of variations of corn, which have been cultivated in their country for thousands of years, to the invasion of Monsanto’s GMO corn (genetically modified organisms). What does this mean? Mexican corn farmers have been selecting their seeds for millennium to ensure the best corn harvest for the coming seasons.

The corn seeds sold to farmers by Monsanto “invaders” with the promise of much higher yield than their traditional crops, those are referred to as “suicide seeds”. Their seeds do not reproduce new plants. To be able to successfully grow these seeds the farmers need to buy the Monsanto brands of pesticide and fertilizer. If winds or birds spread Monsanto seeds into fields of farmers who did not purchase the seeds from them, they can and have been sued by Monsanto since their seeds are patented. After about three years of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, the soil is exhausted and cannot support any more growth. It takes about five years for the soil to recuperate from this damage.

During the following press conference a young women tried to point out to Mr. Petrini that fast and packaged (junk) food was much less expensive, affordable and convenient for low-income households. His answer was NO, NO, NO. You will pay for it in the long run with astronomically high medical bills to treat junk food induced illnesses such as obesity, diabetes (often with limb amputations) and heart attacks.

Herein lies the tragedy of this grave situation; the indigenous farmers of Mexico were excellent and advanced agriculturists that bred and grew many grains, fruits and vegetables that made them one of the healthiest people in the world before the conquest.

Go to the Slow Food website and learn more about this movement. If you are interested in becoming a Slow Food member, please ask me. The annual membership is 100 pesos.

I highly recommend these documentaries, most of which can be viewed on the Internet.

http://www.thefutureoffood.com/

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/the-world-according-to-monsanto/

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/food-inc/

http://www.kingcorn.net/

Mexico's Cuisine Rocks!

Looking back at the 2012 culinary year in México, an explosion of exciting events took place in many areas of the country and young chefs and restaurants rose to national and international fame. There is no doubt anymore, México’s cuisine is hot! After becoming the first and only cuisine in the world to be designated an intangible heritage of humanity by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) foreign chefs from Berlin to Melbourne are paying attention and flocking to the Mexican mercados to learn more about its amazing foods. As with any new trends, there are a lot of pretentious newcomers that pick up on the buzzwords du jour, without knowing the foundation of the original that led to the trend.

I have attended many food events in México over the years but two of the most memorable events that stand out for me I attended last year. They made it very clear that all Mexican food trends and inspirations today are deeply rooted in its culinary traditions. In May at the first “Festival Internacional del Mole” in Puebla, many cooks from the state of Puebla proudly presented their moles to festival attendants. Mole heaven! And no, it is not a chocolate sauce; it is a very complex sauce with many variations that, in my opinion, leaves French sauces wanting, but more about moles some other time.

However, nothing prepared me for the impact that the “9^° Encuentro de Cocineras Traditionales de Michoacán” (9^th Encounter of Traditional Cooks of Michoacán) sponsored by the Michoacán tourist council, would have on me. In the past, I have attended culinary events featuring maybe 10 to 20 wonderful and exciting cooks and chefs, but at this event, 45 women cooks from numerous rural Michoacán communities participated. The festival drew a record breaking 5,000 hungry attendees!

As my taxi pulled up to the large park of the Morelia convention center, I knew I was in the right place. Smoke rose from white tents and delicious smells wafted my way. My taxi driver was ready to park his car and join me in the festivities. I told him to come back later with his family and he did.

The day was very hot. I forgot to bring my hat. My new iPhone, that I had not a clue about to how to use, took fuzzy pictures. Smoke from all the wood-fired cooking facilities burned my eyes and made my hair and clothes smell like I lived in a meat smoker, and yet, overwhelmed with this sensory input, I was in culinary heaven.

I have visited Michoacán many times during the past 20 years and have always loved the foods. Diana Kennedy, renowned Méxican food expert and my friend and idol, first introduced me to sopa tarasca (now called sopa purépecha). I love the classic enchiladas de plaza, chirupa (a special occasion rich meat soup, see recipe), corundas (the unique Michoacán three corner shaped tamales) and charales, the little delicious white fish from Lake Patzcuaro, pozole, a soup made with hominy and many condiments, just to mention a few. These familiar dishes were all served at the festival. However, this is where my familiarity stopped and now I was on new territory.

Where was I going to begin tasting all of the overwhelming variety of foods, for which I had only three days to eat my way through?

On the first day I decided to walk past all the cooks’ tents and then choose my first meal. I am a big fan of pozole and even if it is not a traditional breakfast fare, I got a bowl of pozole batido (beaten pozole), which was a pozole that I was not familiar with. It was creamy and scrumptious. No disposable dishes were used at the event (I loved it, si se puede); therefore my pozole was served in a traditional clay bowl with a “spoon” of a piece of agave that was cut to a point.

As I sat at a long communal table that was covered with a white cotton tablecloth, and marveled over the incredible taste of this dish, I realized that in the next few days I had to open my stomach really wide to be able to taste these amazing dishes.

My next choice was a taco with freshly fried charales, the little white fish from Lake Patzcuaro. When I took my first bite I thought this would be a good moment to die, it was heavenly. 

I watched a small boy sitting across the table from me contently munching the little fishes, head to tail, just as if he was digging into a bag of chips. A table companion was curious and asked me why this extranjera (foreigner) was scarfing down foods that were generally not much appreciated by non-Mexicans. A long conversation about food followed and sharing of more taste treats, such as the fried-to-a-crisp white fish, followed by endless family introductions. One is never alone in México.

My next taste was atapacua. This vegetable and masa-thickened soup can be embellished with any type of tender cooked meats; I enjoyed the vegetable version. The cook, dressed in her finest, gold lace napped traditional dress, proudly presented my bowl to me with welcoming outstretched arms.

In Michoacán, a type of tamale, uchepos, are made from fresh corn and wrapped in fresh corn leaves. They are very different from any other type of tamales served in México. This preparation is much more common in South America, where they are called humitas. In the US they were the culinary darlings in the 80s called “green corn tamales”. Green because of being wrapped in fresh green corn husks. Here I was treated to an unusual tamale of the same preparation with an amazing taste, called chircus (this might not be the proper spelling, I could only record it phonetically) made from fresh blue corn, chile pasilla, yerbabuena (mint), cilantro, and very finely shredded meat. The taste reminded me a lot of a dumpling (Semmel Knödel) served in soups in my home of Bavaria, even if the ingredients were not related at all.

Throughout the days I revisited the tent of the cook Benedicta Alejo. I had seen her cooking demonstration at a previous culinary event in Morelia where she totally stole the show. She apologized for her poor Spanish (which it was not) that she only had learned a few years earlier. She ended the demonstration with a greeting in her native Purépecha language. She is an amazing leader whose knowlege has given great integrity to the heritage cooking of Michoacán, the state that was partly instrumental in the UNESCO designation of Mexican cuisine.

 Benedicta was invited last December on the day of the Virgen de Guadalupe to the Vatican where she cooked a Mexican dinner for her namesake (tocaya) Pope Benedict XVI and 600 guests. I would have loved to see this experience through Benedicta’s eyes. Her grand, grand, grand, grand children will probably still remember this event and be showing pictures of la abuelita Benedicta at the Vatican cooking comida por el papa.

Among the smoke of burning wood, the global heat source for preparing meals since times immortal, I wanted to urge young Mexican and other chefs to learn as much as they can about these traditional preparations. This is their real heritage, this should be their inspiration, not the foams, smears and sad drips on the dinner plates that they have accepted from foreign cuisines, that seldom will be a truly satisfactory dining experience.

¡Viva la Cocina Mexicana!