Cooking Classes in Mexico
Over the past years, I have taken cooking classes in Mexico several times. It’s a great way to learn about specific recipes but also about food culture. I encourage everyone to take a class or two.
Twenty years ago, a day was spent at Season’s of My Heart with Susana Trilling. We started at Abastos mercado in Oaxaca de Juarez with Susanna taking us to her favorite vendors—tasting tejate, cheeses, unusual vegetables and learning about the different mounds of chiles surrounding us. Abastos is sprawling and Susana knew every inch of it.
After we ate lunch in the mercado, we went to Mina Street also known as the Chocolate Street in Oaxaca. The smell of roasted chocolate permeated the air. Every local has their own recipe to make cakes of drinking chocolate and they give their percentages of cocoa beans, sugar, almonds and cinnamon to the mill vendor who puts it in a machine and out comes the thick, specific chocolate. You take it home in a plastic bag and form it into cakes or pat it into round tin molds.
When we got to Susana’s school, some cooks had already done a little of the prep work. We were given the recipes for the evening meal and while meeting new people, trying new foods, and drinking beer we proceeded to make the most delicious dinner. One recipe was for tamales and we passed the bowl of masa around using our hands to mix it until it had enough air and a small piece of the dough would float in a glass of water.
Another experience was a five day cooking class through Meson Sacristia De La Compania a colonial hotel/restaurant in Puebla, Mexico famous for their mole. Every day, we toasted, roasted and cooked a fabulous late lunch. And then we had the rest of the afternoon off for sightseeing. Puebla is considered the birthplace of mole.
Here in the states, a friend gifted me with a class with the grand dame of Mexican cooking, Diana Kennedy. It was held in St. Paul, Minnesota. We didn’t actively participate but we watched and listened to Diana intently and then we were served her results—a wonderful lunch. All the cooking classes I have taken leave you with the recipes of the day to take home.
In Mexico City, a friend and I did a day tour through Eat Mexico of street food in the downtown Centro Historico. If you have stayed away from street food in the past, please don’t. I highly recommend this tour! One of the places we visited featured seafood that is flown in fresh everyday. Think octopus tostados, fish tacos, and more—all the while being on a sidewalk.
A few years ago I signed up for a one day tamale making class at Criollo restaurant in Oaxaca. Three masas were made from corn—a yellow corn, a blue corn, and a pink corn. We had ingredients for several kinds of tamales including a chocolate one. Delicious!
At home, I have over fifteen Mexican cookbooks. My all-time favorite is still Rick Bayless’s very first cookbook, Authentic Mexican, published in 1987. It’s a result of he and his wife traveling Mexico for an entire year and collecting family recipes from the entire country. My Mexico and Oaxaca al Gusto by Diana Kennedy are also favorites.
Think about signing up for a class on your next visit to Mexico—you’ll be glad you did!