Chef Enrique Olvera of highly acclaimed Restaurante Pujol in Mexico City is the founder and guiding light of Mesamérica. Photo courtesy Adam Goldberg.
Mesamérica, highly touted as the Mexican culinary event of the year, opened on July 24 with a gala inaugural dinner at Mexico City's St. Regis Hotel. Forty or so rock-star chefs and other luminaries of the international gastronomic world converged on the city for five days of teaching conferences,food, drink, celebration, and general merry-making.
Chef Ricardo Muñoz Zurita of restaurants Azul/Condesa and Azul/Histórico gave a few opening remarks on July 25.
Chef Alicia Gironella d'Angeli, who together with her husband Giorgio d'Angeli founded Restaurante El Tajín in Mexico City as well as the Slow Food movement in Mexico, spoke from her long perspective as grande dame of Mexico's culinary world during Mesamérica's inauguration. In her talk, she quipped that she was speaking from her juventud acumulada--her accumulated youth.
The Mesamérica 2012 program included chefs from countries as diverse as England, Denmark, Chile, Mexico, and the United States. Names as well-known in Mexico as Diana Kennedy, Javier Plascencia, Mikel Alonso, and Mónica Patiño were among those who gave talks to the huge crowds--as many as 2,000 in attendance for each of two daily sessions. The names of James Casey (editor of SWALLOW magazine), Lars Williams (Nordic Food Labs, Copenhagen), and The Young Turks (Great Britain), which would previously have elicited a "Who?" from me and most of the attending throngs were common currency by the end of the conference.
Chef Javier Plascencia of Restaurante Misión 19, Baja California, along with (below)
Chef Jair Téllez from Restaurante Laja of Baja California and Restaurante MeroToro of Mexico City shared the podium on opening day and together spoke eloquently about the need to invent tradition in Baja California. Chef Javier said, "I am very much inspired by street food, and Tijuana has become a culinary destination. We are living our dream."
ProEpta Mexican baking and tableware shared commercial space with several other culinary arts businesses.
Lars Williams, of Copenhagen's Nordic Food Lab, asked conference assistants to pass around pinches and liquid samples of flavors concocted of insect parts and essences. During his talk, he said that the basic tenet of the Food Lab is--and I quote--"Trying to get gringos to eat bugs". The tiny vial in the photo contains a liquid made from fermented grasshoppers. It smelled and tasted like soy sauce.
Next week, Mexico Cooks! will highlight chefs and other culinary professionals from Mesamérica Day Two. Stay tuned!
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