¡Hola y sea Usted muy bienvenido!
I love sharing my heritage of classical Mexican home cooking with my students. From my earliest years, I watched my mother, my aunts and grandparents in the kitchen.
From both sides of my family, I have inherited traditional cazuelas (clay pots) and ollas (copper pots) and other cooking equipment — and a collection of hand-written recipe books from both my father’s and my mother’s families. For the past fifteen years I have used these cooking implements and our family’s heirloom recipes in my cooking classes in San Miguel.
The oldest of the family’s handwritten recipes date from approximately the late 1700s — inherited through my mother’s side and still in my collection today.
My grandfather on my mother’s side, Don Jesús, is born. His family owned the Hacienda Maderera San Andrés. He always loved to cook and did so on special occasions.
Doña Esperanza, my grandmother, is born. She inherited the great tradition ofMorelian cooking, renowned above all for sweets. Even when gas stoves became available, she refused to use them and continued to prepare her famous sweets “al rescoldo del carbón” — on carbon embers — or in a wood-burning stove. That is how I learned, and continue, to make sweets.
My grandfather on my father’s side, Don Agustín, is born. He inherited his family’s tradition of Oaxacan cooking and bread-making, which he practiced for family occasions such as the First Communion celebrations of his grandchildren.
Doña Laura, who married Don Agustín, is born. Her family owned a wheat and corn mill, and she worked as kitchen director for companies such as Kodak and the National Rural Confederation in Mexico City.
My mother’s sister, Doña María Luisa Solórzano, married Don Francisco, owner of the Hacienda Ganadera de Toros de Lidia “La Punta”, where bullfighting bulls were raised.The hacienda was particularly famous for its kitchen, which served banquets for bullfighting stars, national and international politicians, and renowned artists such as Tyrone Power, Orson Welles, Rita Hayworth and Dolores del Río.
Another of my mother’s sisters, Doña Guadalupe, worked for 42 years as General Manager of the Jockey Club in Mexico City — responsible for grand banquets for weddings and for politicians and diplomatic personnel, including Prince Philip Mountbatten, consort of Queen Elizabeth II of England.
For many years, my mother made Mexican desserts such as coconut macaroons, flan, and almond caramel.
Those cazuelas, copper ollas and heirloom recipe books are the working tools of my classes — 200 years of family tradition, cooked by your hands.