Cooking Classes with
Iliana de la Vega
  -- Chef and owner of the restaurant El Naranjo.

Frommer’s Mexico®¨ (2004 edition) says: “El Naranjo, where the emphasis is on Oaxacan specialties, is my favorite restaurant in the city.” Specialties include complex sauces handed down through generations and fresh organic salads, as well as little-known chiles filled with traditional ingredients.

New York Times® (March 10, 2002) says: "Iliana de la Vega puts a modern spin on traditional cuisine."

    Iliana says: "I won't do anything radical... but I want to do my own thing, which is not everything exactly as my mother did. You can imporve recipes as long as you are respectful of the basics.
    If you talk to me about authenticity, I don't know what you mean. If you say tradition, then I'm with you."

Cooking Classes with Reyna Mendoza

"Count yourself lucky indeed if you have a cooking class with Reyna, learning centuries- old techniques and absolutely delicious flavors." -Rick Bayless, Chef/Owner Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, Chicago.

Enjoy the day in a hands-on cooking class at a private hacienda overlooking the Zapotec village of Teotitlan with resident chef Reyna Mendoza and her team of local women cooks.

Reyna is a native of the village of Teotitlan del Valle who has an instinctual knowledge of the region's complex cuisine and in addition to her superb regional cooking prowess, she has studied with chef and cookbook author Ricardo Muñoz and has impressed none other than chef and author Rick Bayless. You'll learn to make the delicate mole-filled tamales of Teotitlan, and get a unique, experiential understanding of the way that roasting and toasting brings salsas to exhilarating life. And how could we not stop in Teotitlan - famous for its centuries old weaving techniques - to see the beautiful rugs and meet the weavers.

Cooking Classes with Alejandro Ruiz  
– Chef and owner of Casa Oaxaca El Restaurante

The gifted chef Alejandro Ruiz Olmedo creates imaginative nouvelle Mexican dishes with a light but sure touch. Dining is in the elegant covered patio as well as in an intimate room located just off the kitchen. With prime fresh products of Oaxaca and the coast, he prepares gourmet specialties.

Creative dishes include squash blossom stuffed with fresh cheese and honey; fanciful soups and salads. A superb main dish is pork with mancha manteles mole. Alejandro also conjures up mouthwatering concoctions with fresh sea bass as well as roasted duck and rack of lamb.

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