Drove down from the ranch yesterday. Had to brave 405 traffic on a Friday and yes the police were running a break - have you experienced that - crazy driving by a police car in front of 5 lanes of traffic in hopes that the car's occupants stop texting, slow down and then come to a complete halt for no known reason. Luckily, I exited at Sherman Way and spent an interesting time driving through Reseda Village. Who knew there was a Sri Lankan Cafe where the meat is halal right in the middle of Reseda. Now you know!
The point is I needed to get here to go to the culinary workshop I signed up for at the Getty Villa - Dining in the Aztec Empire. And it was so worth the drive. Taught by Maite Gomez-Rejon, this class combined a brief tour of the current special Aztec Exhibit focusing on food in the Aztec culture. I was thrilled to find that there was someone teaching culture and art through food as to me that is truly the link between us all. There were no cookbooks or written recipes by the Aztecs, but in the 1500's a priest, Bernardino de Sahagun, created a fascinating peek into the culinary culture of the Aztec when he and his followers compiled the Florentine Codex as a way to understand the history and psychology of the indigenous people to covert them to Christianity. The creative Ms Gomez-Rejon wove a story of a conquered people who introduced many foods to the Western palate including chocolate, corn, chiles and tequila! Now those are my kind of people.
After the tour we returned to the classroom to cook a fabulous meal from the recipes chosen by our teacher who received an MFA from School of the Art Institute Chicago and a Grande Diplome form the French Culinary Institute in NYC.
After the tour we returned to the classroom to cook a fabulous meal from the recipes chosen by our teacher who received an MFA from School of the Art Institute Chicago and a Grande Diplome form the French Culinary Institute in NYC.
The recipes included both new world (Aztec) and old world (Spanish) ingredients and created such dishes as Corn and Zucchini Salad, Shrimp and Cactus Salad,
2 comments:
This sounds fabulous! of course the link to all and between peoples is their food their music and their stories. What a fantastic day you had. Thanks for sharing Xo
wow Nice description of this great event! Next time you're in DC be sure to eat around 11am (right when they open) in the Native American museum's cafe ...on the mall near Capital. wonderful chefs and stations representing the multifarious nations cuisine. Trillium and I had exquisite experience by the waterfall window!
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