Rubbing Shoulders With Fame

CIEE students had the unusual opportunity to gather and learn about Mexican culinary arts under the tutelage of professional chefs this past Wednesday. Our excursion was to the Instituto Gastronómico de Mérida (IGM) founded by international chef David Luna Maldonado. Our mission: Discover, learn about, cook (and eat) authentic Mexican gastronomy.  We were separated into two huge kitchens and divided again into four groups per kitchen. First came the instructions: Follow these chefs. Vegetarians over there!  Put on these delantals (aprons), and, yes, EVERYONE has to wear a hair net!  Wash hands....of course!  Finally, it was time to cut, chop, slice, boil, stir, grill, arrange, present, and did we mention, eat?  The menu consisted of Lomitos de Valladolid (Tomato and Onion Pork Loins with boiled eggs), Sikilpak, a Yucatan dip made of crushed pumpkin seeds, tomato and cilantro, eaten with tortilla chips, and the natural favorite of the kids, arroz con leche, a Mexican classic, rice milk pudding.  For the vegetarians (and sneaky omnivores), something a little like a tamal, delicious corn-meal dough cooked in chaya, which is a leafy green vegetable, not unlike spinach.  After the generous sampling - more like feasting, really - of the different dishes, it was time to clean up.  Some encouragement was needed here; these are teenagers, after all. But the spirit of the afternoon was festive, light, and full of laughter.  But the crowning moment of the event was yet to come, the icing on the proverbial cake. Following group pictures, someone noticed several copies of a magazine on the coffee table in the lobby:  ¡Aló Mérida! Upon closer inspection, we saw a chef on the cover.  A familiar-looking chef.  In fact, wasn't that the same name we had seen at the entrance on the wall? Yes! It was....chef David Luna Maldonado himself.  Excitement buzzed through the crowd as the students realized with whom they had been rubbing shoulders so closely, especially the downstairs group (no jealousy there, none, no, not at all!) and suddenly, our movement toward the vans to go home turned into a rush back to Mr. Luna to get in line to take individual pictures with the international star chef himself, as well as with his talented sous chefs.  You can check out his work (and some more pictures of our students) on Facebook at IGM Instituto Gastronómico de Mérida. What an amazing outing it was.  And good timing, too.  Just days later, the students were to put their new cooking skills to use in the popular guacamole-making contest! Of the many reasons why Mérida is an amazing place for an immersion experience, the Mexican gastronomy is definitely one of them.