This past weekend, an edgy world honored International Women’s Day, celebrated yearly on March 8 since the UN set the official date 50 years ago. This year, I want to mark it by recognizing a traditional skill practiced chiefly by women since the dawn of civilization: cooking. We don’t want to lose our ability to honor– and if we enjoy it, to practice– this ancient domestic skill, even as we step into leadership roles on every continent.
I’ve been thinking about women and cooking since taking a class at Seasons of the Heart cooking school outside of Oaxaca, Mexico, three weeks ago. My passion for the kitchen began when my mother bought me The Campbell Kids at Home Cookbook when I was six, but never in my life had I taken a class. I’d got my education primarily from watching Julia Child throughout the 70s and 80s, and endlessly tweaking recipes from the dozens of cookbooks I’ve collected over the decades.
But in all that time, I’d never attempted to make molé, the rich and complex sauce from Oaxaca that can range from warm gold to nearly black and is used variously on tamales, enchiladas, and poultry. Recipes with 28 or more ingredients have always unnerved me. As has the prospect of scorching five or six different vegetables plus a multiplicity of various seeds, nuts, spices, and dried peppers, each one separately, in a cast-iron skillet. I needed encouragement.
So when a friend who travels regularly to Mexico told me about Seasons of the Heart, I went online and immediately signed up.
The cooking school was begun in the 1980s by American chef and caterer Susana Trilling, whose mother was of Mexican descent. Her grandmother’s kitchen and garden in San Antonio, Texas, had always struck Trilling as an earthly paradise. “The center of the world,” as she later wrote.
After a stint cooking professionally in New York City, Trilling set out for Mexico. After traveling around, she settled in the village of San Lorenzo Cacaotepec, outside Oaxaca, with Eric Ulrich, a Dutch engineer she’d met in New York. Together they built a small farm.
Susana made a practice of cooking with the local women, mostly indigenous, whose traditions and skill at she admired and sought to emulate. After Ulrich built a bed and breakfast on their property, she began offering classes based upon what she’d learned. She enjoyed helping outsiders appreciate what made the ancient culture of Oaxaca so distinctive. Later, she gained an international following thanks to a show on PBS and several cookbooks.
Now retired and living in the village, Susana has passed the school on to the oldest of her four sons, Kaelin. After a childhood spent helping his father farm, Kaelin spent 10 years in the US. He worked for superstar chefs like Thomas Keller and Marcus Samuelson, honing his cooking and management skills. He returned home when his father became ill and began working with Susanna. He’s a superb teacher who carries his Oaxacan heritage in his soul.
Nine women and three men had signed up for our day-long class at Seasons of the Heart, some excellent home cooks, others just looking for an adventure. A few knew one another, but mostly we were strangers collaborating to produce a magnificent multi-course dinner. Kaelin divided us into groups of two or three, each with responsibility for different dishes. I volunteered for the molé team.
It was demanding. Timing was key, as was endless scorching and chopping, and enough stirring to make risotto five times over. But we never felt frazzled. The sage-scented breezes blowing through the big screens while the ranchito dogs waited patiently on the porch created an atmosphere in which we all worked with relaxed determination. Sharing this sensory and time-transcending experience, along with the satisfaction of a long day’s hard work, connected us with the women who had been cooking here for their extended families, using the same ingredients and utensils as we did, for the last 3,000 years.
This deep connection and solidarity with women past and present has remained top of mind for me throughout this month. And it’s what I wish to share with you.
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