All this week Oaxaca has been blessed with "el saber del sabor," a gastronomic festival featuring many of the best chefs and cooks from Mexico. 'To know the taste" might be a decent translation or maybe "the knowledge of flavor."At any rate, it has been a remarkable week, starting last Friday in the spectacular setting of the botanical garden at Santo Domingo with a dinner for 700 prepared by twenty of Oaxaca's finest cooks from the city and the surrounding villages.
These cooks did not disappoint with many wonderful taste treats like molés, tamales, ceviche, mezcals, soups, and desserts. 
There was great music, complete with a mariachi band, to go with the fine food and drink. People really had a mighty good time. The Oaxaca social scene at its finestMuch of the week was in celebration of author and Mexican food expert, Diana Kennedy and her latest book, which is entitled "Oaxaca al Gusto."
Diana has written a whole slew of cookbooks and compiled hundreds of recipes from all over Mexico. Just watching her bask in well deserved glory and interact with all the chefs was a real honor. There was an official presentation on Wednesday at Santo Domingo to recognize her many contributions to the Mexican cooking literature.Sunday, I was lucky enough to attend a dinner at Casa Oaxaca featuring chefs Mikel Alonso Garcia
and Roberto Solis doing his Matrix cooking thing.
Alejandro Ruiz Olmedo , the fine chef and manager of Casa Oaxaca helped organize the week and hosted the meal, which was haute cuisine, small servings of a wide range for dishes from the opening course of tomato aspic with chicharon through seafood dishes, meat and ending with a sublime mango dish. The menu:
Tuesday is was a special degustacion at the other Casa Oaxaca location with a kitchen full of cooks. Mighty tasty food and and an honor to be invited.Gracias, Alejandro.
From there the week progressed with films, lectures and above all, spectacular food prepared by some of the best chefs in Mexico.
Check out this fish soup cooked by addng heated rocks. Muy rico!
So it has been a heady week just being around all these great cooks and authors. Patrica Quintana
and Susannah Trilling were among the luminaries.
This has been an important event for several reasons. First, Oaxaca is famous for its unique cuisine and this week it certainly showed why. Secondly, to celebrate Diana Kennedy and all the remarkable cooks and chefs. And lastly, to invite the world to come to Oaxaca and see the diversity of foods here, everything from the traditional molés to haute cuisine. This place has it all, something for everyone.
2 comments:
Would have died and gone to heaven if I'd been there! Thanks for the report! Wow!
All I can say is "wow"-I'm jealous!
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