I was invited to travel to Oaxaca, Mexico to host a chocolate and mezcal pairing and I immediately said yes, even though I had never done this type of pairing. I could not pass up the opportunity. Pairing chocolate with mezcal took a lot of research – mostly me drinking a lot of mezcal. I…
Oaxaca is the only place on earth that has a strong and visible chocolate and cacao consuming culture imbedded in every day life. Indigenous use of cacao and chocolate has been preserved and is cherished and promoted. Here are a few of the chocolate things I consumed and experienced while in Oaxaca, and some tips…
Oaxaca é o único lugar do mundo que possui uma cultura forte e visível de consumo de cacau e chocolate na vida cotidiana. O uso indígena do cacau foi preservado e é valorizado e promovido. Aqui vão algumas dicas relacionadas a chocolate que comi e vivi enquanto estava em Oaxaca, e algumas dicas sobre…
Although cacao has been consumed for over 4,000 plus years in the Americas, processed chocolate is a new concept to indigenous communities and is a product of Europe. I have spent the last many years learning about chocolate using European methods, but on my trip to Guatemala I went as far back as anyone can…
The only place in the world where you can see cacao and chocolate so imbedded in every day life is Oaxaca, Mexico. Although 70% of the world’s cacao production is in Africa, Mexico has no competition when it comes to daily consumption and use of cacao. Go to any mercado in Oaxaca and you will find vendors…
Panama’s humid, wet, and tropical climate offers optimal conditions for growing cacao. Yet in the world of chocolate Panama is rarely mentioned- it is actually almost forgotten. So when I was asked by the USAID Farmer2Farmer program to travel to northern Panama to teach Ngäbe indigenous women to make chocolate, I was excited to accept…
The best way to explain mezcal is to compare it to tequila.
Champurrado is a hot beverage found mostly in Mexico that consists of milk or water, corn, sugar, and chocolate. Most people refer to it as atole, which is a thickened corn based drink, but the correct name, when it includes chocolate, is Champurrado. Atole is any corn thickened drink, champurrado is when you add chocolate to an…
A female cacao farmer that makes chocolate and grows cacao on an island that sits on the Amazon River. Sounds like a made up story but one hundred percent real. I first heard of Dona Nena in Oakland, California of all places. I was at a book launch/dinner for Chef Alex Atala and his new…
The Instituto de Cocina Pachacútec is culinary program that subsidizes 80% of the tuition for young Peruvian students. The Pachacútec school has four cohorts of 22 students each. Each cohort has a 1,000 applicants but the program can only fund 22 per cohort. The program is partly supported by the Gaston Acurio culinary enterprise. Chefs from…