Cocinar Mexicano Hosts Culinary Intensive With Mexico's Top Chefs

Cocinar Mexicano is pleased to announce its Chefs Only workshop for 2006, a professional intensive that provides access to the most exciting names in contemporary Mexican cuisine.

With two days of cooking and curated dining in Mexico City's top culinary venues and a day trip to the rural village of Tepoztlan to cook with local women, our Chefs Only workshop features two full days in the kitchens of our virtuosic guest chefs, both world-class artists with their own restaurants in the nation's capital. Registration for this exclusive experience is limited to eight.

Featured chefs for 2006-07 are Martha Ortiz Chapa, of Aguila y Sol,
and Ricardo Muqoz of Azul y Oro.
Dates: November 3-8th,, 2006

Format

Participants arrive in Mexico City on a Friday afternoon, and immediately plunge into the culinary life of the city and of Mexico itself.

With dinner Friday night at Aguila y Sol, the group travels by van the next morning for breakfast and a Q & A with legendary Veracruzan cook Titita Rammrez at her restaurant El Bajmo, then to one of the city's famous food markets, where we will be joined by culinary historian and chef Miguel Garcma Lspez. From there it's off to the colonial neighborhood of Coyoacan, famous for its outdoor market as well as for the house of painter Frida Kahlo and the Museum of Popular Culture, both of which we visit. Our lunch will be a hands-on class at Ricardo Muqoz's nearby Azul y Oro, an innovative gourmet restaurant on the campus of the national university. A brief stop back at our hotel paves the way for an evening of cantina and bar hopping with Ricardo and Miguel as our guides, culminating with supper at another of our affiliated restaurants.

On Sunday the group drives out to the mountain village of Tepoztlan, where Cocinar is based, to experience the traditional food and culture that are the heart of this ever-changing cuisine. Following a market-based orientation, participants will enjoy two back-to-back sessions in the ancient art of making tortillas and tamales, along with the country's famed antojitos, prepared with sauces based on the chiles in the market. Local village women will instruct. Techniques include the use of a tortilla press and the traditional basalt molcajete, or mortar. Our vans return to Mexico City at dusk, in time for dinner at another of the city's top-tier restaurants.

Monday morning the group splits in half, with four chefs departing to work with Martha Ortiz, the other four to work with Ricardo. On Tuesday the groups switch, and on Tuesday evening we hold a farewell dinner and discussion in Mexico City before departure Wednesday morning.

Please see our website for details & application guidelines: www.cocinarmexicano.com