cooking classes

Five cooking classes to try in Oaxaca

November 7, 2013 by Dolores Wiarco Dweck

Mole prepared during one of Reyna Mendoza’s cooking classes in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. Photo by Lesley Téllez.

From Lesley: Today I’m running a guest post from Dolores Wiarco Dweck, whom I met in Oaxaca last year. She really impressed me with her passion for Oaxaca’s cuisine and culture, and the research project she’d created to specifically learn about local cooking classes. Here’s more from her.

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My love affair with Mexico’s culture and cuisine began in early childhood when I visited Acámbaro, Guanajuato, a small town known for its bread, with my family every summer.

There was a bakery on almost every corner. My favorite was the pan de Acámbaro, an oval-shaped loaf of bread that is similar in characteristics to Jewish challah — slightly sweet and a little dense, with raisins. We ate it with fresh butter and a little bit of sugar sprinkled on top, or nata.

My passion for Mexican food eventually led me to do my master’s thesis research on culinary tourism in Oaxaca. Last summer, I traveled to Oaxaca and worked with five cooking school instructors to learn about their individual enterprising skills in promoting Oaxaca as a culinary destination. I took more than 15 classes, learned new dishes and returned home with a love for indigenous Mexican cuisine.

Here are five Oaxacan cooking schools I particularly enjoyed visiting. Each one provides a hands-on experience for travelers interested in exploring a new culture through food.

1. Alma de Mi Tierra, with Nora Valencia

Nora Valencia. Photo by Dolores Wiarco Dweck.

Alma de Mi Tierra’s cooking classes are $75 and promote authentic dishes of Oaxaca, and recipes passed down from Nora’s grandmother as well as some of her own creations. They begin at 9:30 a.m. and end by 3:00 p.m. Classes are hands-on, taught in English or Spanish in her quaint home kitchen, and include printed recipes, a local market tour, a mezcal tasting, and a four-course sit-down meal. Menus typically consist of a salsa, an appetizer, a soup, a main entrée, an agua fresca, and a dessert.

Highlights:

Nora’s friendly nature, bubbly personality, and historical insights allow students to learn about Mexican food, mercados, and the origins of various ingredients in a fun and interesting way.
The cozy Mexican-style home kitchen offers an intimate experience for small groups.
Family recipes (green mole) and Nora’s own creations (Khalua gelatin dessert) are an absolute treat.

2. Casa Crespo, with Oscar Carrizosa

Casa Crespo's cooking class set-up in Oaxaca.

The scene at Casa Crespo’s cooking classes in Oaxaca.

Classes at Casa Crespo are $65 and take place Tuesday through Saturday at 10:00 a.m. and on Sundays at 11:00 a.m., and last approximately four hours. Oscar focuses on ingredients and techniques from Oaxaca’s eight regions, with an emphasis on easy replication of dishes at home. Students receive morning coffee, a tour of the Sanchez Pascuas organic market, recipes (emailed after class), unlimited beer or mezcal, and a group meal.

Chilaquiles at Casa Crespo. Photo by Dolores Wiarco Dweck.

Highlights:

Oscar provides great explanations of different ingredients during the market tour, providing insight into the ceremonial uses of herbs and other products.
Classes are relatively short, which leaves time for other afternoon activities.
While the classes are quick, the variety of salsas and other menu items made is expansive. The menu typically includes several appetizers, at least four salsas, a main entrée, homemade ice cream, and agua fresca.

3. Casa de los Sabores, with Pilar Cabrera

Pilar Cabrera’s nopal salad. Photo by Lesley Téllez.

Casa de los Sabores group classes are $75 and take place from approximately 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. They are led by chef and La Olla restaurant owner, Pilar Cabrera, and offer the opportunity to learn secret family recipes and traditional Oaxacan dishes. The price includes all materials, a tour of Mercado de la Merced, hands-on instruction, a mezcal tasting, and a five-course meal – an appetizer, salsa or guacamole, soup or rice, mole, dessert, and agua fresca.

Sweet bread in Oaxaca’s La Merced market. Photo by Lesley Téllez.

Highlights:

Pilar offers a different perspective given her background as a food scientist-turned chef – plus she’s a master when it comes to squash blossom soup and desserts.
While the menus are set and based on different moles, Pilar emphasizes the importance of improvisation depending on fresh and seasonal ingredients found during the market tour.
The class includes an intimate and educational mezcal tasting and explanation led by Pilar before the meal.

4. El Sabor Zapoteco, with Reyna Mendoza

Reyna Mendoza at the market in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. Photo by Dolores Wiarco Dweck.

Reyna Mendoza (in the checkered apron) at the market in Teotitlán del Valle, Oaxaca. Photo by Dolores Wiarco Dweck.

El Sabor Zapoteco focuses on traditional Zapotec dishes and culture. The six-hour cooking classes are $75, and are available on Tuesdays and Fridays from 9:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. or on other days when requested with advance notice. Classes include roundtrip transportation to and from Teotitlán del Valle (students are picked up at their hotels), a local market tour, homemade hot chocolate and sweet bread, a hands-on cooking class in Reyna’s outdoor home kitchen, recipes, and a sit-down group meal that includes appetizers, entrees, dessert, drinks and mezcal.

A chaya leaf tamal at Reyna Mendoza's Sabor Zapoteco cooking class. Photo by Dolores Wiarco Dweck.

Fruit at the Teotitlán Market, during Reyna Mendoza’s Sabor Zapoteco cooking class. Photo by Dolores Wiarco Dweck.

Highlights:

Reyna’s calm demeanor can put anyone at ease in the kitchen, and it’s wonderful to learn from someone in the Zapotec community.
The market tour in Teotitlán del Valle offers insights into Zapotec village life.
The outdoor kitchen is great – students use traditional tools such as a clay comal (flat griddle used to roast ingredients), a metate (large stone tool used to grind maize, chocolate, or dried chiles and spices for mole), and a molcajete (stone pestle and mortar) to make salsa.

5. Seasons of My Heart, Susana Trilling

The kitchen at Seasons of My Heart in Oaxaca. Photo by Dolores Wiarco Dweck.

Seasons of My Heart’s regular classes are $85 and take place on Wednesdays from 9:00 a.m. to approximately 6:00 p.m. They include roundtrip transportation from a designated pick-up location in downtown Oaxaca, a tasting tour and light lunch at the Wednesday Etla market, a lecture on Oaxacan cuisine by Chef Susana Trilling, and hands-on preparation and consumption of a five-course meal.

Highlights:

Susana’s approachable personality and larger group classes offer opportunities to socialize and meet new people interested in cooking.
This beautiful and spacious cooking school is located in the open countryside and has a good mix of modern and traditional cooking tools and appliances.
The Etla market tour is incredible – students taste a ton of regional foods such as nicuatole (pre-Hispanic corn and sugar dessert), egg bread, hot chocolate, various tamales, ice creams and desserts that they might not otherwise taste while in Oaxaca.

About Lola
Dolores Wiarco Dweck, known by her nearest and dearest as Lola, has a great appreciation for Mexican cuisine and culture. Lola’s culinary mentors include her relatives and friends as well as some of Mexico’s great chefs and home cooks. She preserves and shares her favorite recipes through Lola’s Cocina.

Making mole and touring the Etla market with Seasons of My Heart in Oaxaca

July 3, 2012 by Lesley Tellez

Chiles de agua at the Wednesday market in Etla, Oaxaca

I met Susana Trilling in New York a few years ago, at a culinary event given by Zarela Martinez. I was from Mexico (or visiting anyway), and so was she, so I boldly approached her and introduced myself. She was gracious and warm, and we ended up keeping in touch once I got back to Mexico.

A few months ago Susana invited me to visit Seasons of My Heart, the cooking school she runs in San Lorenzo Cacaotepec about 45 minutes from Oaxaca City. She gives an open cooking class on Wednesdays for $75 USD, which includes a visit to the Wednesday Market in the nearby town of Etla.

I finally took the tour a few weeks ago and I’m so glad I did. The market itself was worth the price of admission.

The Etla Market: A must-visit

We met Yolanda, one of Susana’s market guides for the past several years and a Oaxaca native, at a central meeting point. She spent the next 2 1/2 hours pointing out the ceramics and herbs, and giving us tastes of nicuatole, homemade smoky requesón, sesame-topped pan amarillo, nieves, tamales and more.

Pan dulce at one of the Etla market stands

Bags of nicuatole, a corn-and-sugar dessert

The tamales, sold from a stand near the back entrance, nearly swore me off of Mexico City streetside tamales forever. The squash flower-chepil variety (there was a squash-flower chepil variety!) tasted like the ingredients had been plucked from a garden somewhere nearby. And the ~~coloradito~~ amarillo. Oh god. These were the tamales to end all tamales.

The amarillo tamal

A black bean tamal wrapped in hoja santa

Returning to the Cooking School

Back at Seasons of My Heart — the school is tucked off a dirt road, nestled in the Etla hills — I volunteered for team tasked with making chichilo mole. My partner and I gathered at the outdoor wood-fired kitchen stove and toasted our chiles and tomatoes. We lit a tortilla on fire with a few spoonfuls of chile seeds and watched it burn.

It started to rain, and I finally had a chance to think about where I was and what I was actually doing — standing in front of the wood fire and a comal de barro, blackening a tortilla until it smoked, in the same way who knows how many women had done before me.

The tortilla started out like this...

... And then turned into this...

... And finally, once the flamed petered out, became this. This is what we'd crumble, soak in cold water and eventually stir into our mole.

Chichilo mole and rice at Seasons of My Heart in Oaxaca

Then, finally, it was lunch time. The food kept coming: nopales salad, pumpkin seed dip, corn soup, corn antojitos called tetelas, chichilo mole, rice. We stuffed ourselves and talked.

By the time the class ended and the van arrived to pick everyone up, the rain had started again, and thick swaths of dark clouds covered the mountains in the distance. I wanted to curl up in a chair with a blanket and a cup of tea and stay until the stars came out.

I’d highly recommend Susana’s class if you’re visiting Oaxaca. (You can reserve directly through the Seasons of My Heart website.) I’ll leave you with more photos of the Wednesday Market in Etla.

Tasajo, anyone?

It was all I could do to resist buying from these ladies.

Dishing up chocolate atole, a thick, warm drink made with chocolate and corn

Gorgeous avocado criollo

More criollo avocados (you eat the skin!)

The seed vendor, for growing your garden or farm

Yolanda poses with poleo, a Oaxacan herb used to treat an upset stomach

Agua de chilacayota, a piloncillo-squash drink

Cooking traditional Mexican food with Marilau

March 7, 2011 by Lesley Tellez

One of my goals in San Miguel de Allende was to take a cooking class. San Miguel has plenty of those, but I wanted something intensive — a place where I could seriously discuss the food and explore some basics that I hadn’t yet grasped in my Thursday night cooking class.

A while back, Rachel Laudan had recommended a woman named Marilau in San Miguel. Marilau’s website was impressive: she had a techniques class that taught how to capear and how to clean nopales, and another called the ABCs of Mexican cooking that taught salsas, moles, pipianes and adobos.

The latter sounded perfect for me. Luckily she had availability, and at my request she graciously squeezed the normally four-day long class into two days.
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Cooking a homemade Oaxacan meal, metate and all, with Reyna Mendoza

January 26, 2011 by Lesley Tellez

The ingredients to make a stellar mole

We arrived at Reyna’s house with two baskets full of produce. She unlocked the heavy gated entrance and we stepped through the doorway. In front of us was an open, tranquil courtyard with a dirt floor. This is where we’d cook and eat.

The kitchen lay just beyond the herb garden. Cooking utensils hung on the walls, and a bright red piece of oilcloth (called “charomesa” in Spanish) was draped on a blue work table. She had spatulas, metates, molinillos, clay ollas and a gargantuan tortilla press. At the edge of the kitchen sat a wood-fired stove, crowned with two clay comales.

This tortilla press weighs a ton -- it's the secret to a thin tlayuda.

On the other side of the kitchen, hundreds of corn cobs dried and crinkled under the sun. Across from them, rows of fat squash sunbathed, too, some with hunter-green mottled skins. Reyna’s dad grows the squash and the corn on a farm not too far from her house.

Corn cobs drying in the sun. They'll use the corn for tamales and tortillas, among other things.

I felt like Julia Child visiting the south of France for the first time. The splendor of the land! The fecundity! I lingered around the squash and asked Reyna: “Are any of these for sale?” She said after class I could pick out a few I liked.

We unloaded our provisions in the kitchen and she set about preparing chocolate to go with our sweet bread. I tried to pay attention, but I was overwhelmed by my new environment. I felt very lucky to be there. Even the plate of pan dulce looked like it came from a dream.

The crunchy, pretzel-shaped piece ended up being my favorite.

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