Flowers
in the cuisine are a reality and are not only those that some chefs place in contemporary dishes to give flavor or color, but they are part of the food culture in several states in Mexico .
Lesterloon Sánchez
is a researcher , chef, gourmand . He wrote the book Flowers in Veracruz's Cuisine .
In his opinion, Mexicans are people who are governed by their relationship with flowers, as we are born, live and grown among them. He says that “flowers in Mexican culture are a bast theme, it started with Pre-Hispanic people and which continues to this day. They are in parties, processions, songs, poems, legends, details, painting, embroideries, colors, and of course, in food”.
In this edition, he registered 65 edible flowers and 200 recipes in a fieldwork that took him over six years, different trips, and enriching experiences. As he advanced in his project, Lesterloon found more recipes and more information about its use in rituals performed in his native state. “I restricted my work to Veracruz and I found flowers no one had registered before, as well as recipes, and ethnographic information. And I still think there are many left to register”, he says.
In this book he discovers the way the people in Veracruz eat flowers , trying to link their nutritious, medicinal, ritual, and aesthetic uses, among legends, memories, jungles, mountains, and towns.
Soups, tamales, stews, moles, tortitas, chileatoles, adobos, rices, empanadas, enchiladas, chiles rellenos, pipianes, salads, juices, atoles, sweets
, among other recipes, are included in this book.
Every species has its own story. An example is the Plumeria rubra , also known as cacaloxóchitl, xanat spiritu, flor de Corpus, flor de templo, flor de la Santa Cruz, súchel, súchil, guie’chaachi, or pu’uchmooya, which venerated among indigenous groups and Afro-mestizo people in Veracruz .
“Its smell is unforgettable, sometimes they describe it as jasmine and has certain white, pink, or yellow tones”. He explains that “there is a tradition among the Zoque-Popolucas groups in Sotepan when a child dies, they have to look for godparents to sprinkle the child's head with holy water and place a yellow flower in their mouth, a pu’uchmooya, so they can eat in their next life”.
Lesterloon organized the cookbook “according to the scientific name, then the common names, and the recipes. That is, I didn't organize it by courses or meals, but by flower varieties and the way you can eat them”.
“For me, it's an honor to publish in this collection, it's essential to spread the cuisine of the indigenous and mestizo communities in our country. These dishes and stories wouldn’t have gotten to us any other way, because, until the 20th century, cookbooks from the high classes were published. Indigenous and mestizo communities had inherited their recipes through oral tradition and these books have allowed imagining how big is the Mexican cuisine , as there are 78 books and there are many more stories to tell”, he says.
Therefore, Flowers in Veracruz's Cuisine “Las flores en la cocina veracruzana” is an essential read to learn about nutrition in our country and its diversity. You can find it in EDUCAL bookstores, Gandhi, and El Sótano, among other bookstores.
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