San Miguel Taste: A Culinary Experience to Gift and Savor!

By Amy G. Rothlin

This month, my recommendation is a little different. Instead of recommending a restaurant, I’m inviting you to step inside the kitchen, specifically, the kitchen of Chef Rubén Yáñez, master instructor at the Sazón Cookery School of Belmond’s Casa de Sierra Nevada. If you consider yourself an epicurean, there’s truly no better way to experience Mexican cuisine than by learning to prepare it with your own hands. This might just be the perfect holiday gift for the friends and family visiting this season, plus you get to impress them later with the dishes you learn. Win-win.

Chef Rubén’s kitchen is tucked inside the hotel’s beautiful casona on Correo 22, where the magic begins before you even tie on an apron. The experience kicks off with what I can only describe as “the whole enchilada” literally and figuratively.

Chef Rubén takes you on an immersive walk through the Ignacio Ramírez market, where colors, scents, and sizzling comales set the mood. You visit his favorite local vendors and choose the ingredients you’ll be cooking with. Warning: this part alone opens your appetite in dangerous ways.

Back in the kitchen, you’re welcomed with a Mezquite mezcalita made with grapefruit and sweetened with Mezquite syrup. Then the cooking begins. Chef Rubén guides you through each technique, aroma, and flavorful step.

In my class, we prepared Enchiladas Potosinas, a dish stuffed with fresh ranchero cheese from the market, wrapped in tortillas we made ourselves, and decorated with stamped epazote leaves. We also made silky refried beans, a rich and smoky peanut sauce with morita chiles, and a truly unforgettable guacamole with xoconostle and smoked Oaxacan cheese.

At the end, we all sat around the table with the chef, enjoying the dishes we created and sharing stories over more mezcalitas. It was warm, joyful, delicious, everything a San Miguel moment should be. I cannot recommend this experience enough.

Reserve your class withChef Rubén Yáñez ruben.hernandez@belmond.com, or contact Casa de Sierra Nevada: reservaciones.csn@belmond.com

+52 415 152 7040.As the Chef loves to say:

“Full belly, happy heart.”