Mexican Cooking with Flowers: Rising Chef Lesterloon Sanchez

Photos by Carlos Baizabal

At age 22, Veracruzan chef, Lesterloon Sanchez already commands respect.  Some of it has to do with his height (1.84 meters, 6’4″) and his purposeful quiet manner but there’s fire in his green eyes burning for knowledge, but, what drew me to him is his passion and commitment to share what he’s learned about the various ethnic cuisines of Veracruz and the Afro-Mexican food his mother taught him how to make. He has a clear vision of what he wants to do with it and is willing to put in the time and effort to achieve it. He knows he is young and has a lot to learn in order to develop a unique style.

Like several other successful, talented, young chefs and entrepreneurs I have recently met such as Daniel Ovadia of Paxia and Lesley Tellez of Eat Mexico, Lesterloon graduated from the ever-more-popular Escuela de Gstronomia Mexicana  with a deep appreciation and almost missionary zeal  to promote true Mexican cuisine set in a cultural context which is what I have been preaching for over 30 years. (Please note that I will be doing a piece on this school soon run by historian Edmundo Escamilla and chef Yuri de Gortari. From what I have learned this seems to be a school that I can recommend wholeheartedly.)

With their encouragement, this young man wrote a book on cooking with flowers and had a dummy made of it (see picture) as his thesis for his graduation from culinary school. He researched the subject thoroughly and learned that this tradition goes back to pre-Hispanic times. Fray Bernardo de Sahagún, the earliest Spanish chronicler of  life in Mexico in the early days of the conquest, described several dishes made with flowers.  This is a serious book with lots of background material. He is confident that he can get it published in the spring when there is a variety of flowers for cooking.

Raquel Torres has also written about cooking with flowers and introduced Lesterloon to me as her student and protegee during my visit to Xalapa in October at the start of the Day of the Dead celebrations.   The only flowers available then were squash blossoms and  the traditional cempasuchil (marigolds) and cockscombs used on the altars but, as a sort of test, after a long day, I called him at around 4PM and asked if he could cook a few dishes for our dinner.  He did not hesitate one bit and asked us to go at 8:00PM.

He and his lovely girlfriend Mabel, produced three delicious nutritious and light dishes:  a nopalitos salad  prepped in an unusual mot hod of removing the sliminess of the cactus paddles  new to me: He sprinkles salt on the onion and cactus and rubs it between his hands for about 10 minutes, a process that yields firm, bright green, not slimy ; washes and dries them and combines them with the rest of the ingredients, a sparkling ceviche with mandarin orange and mango, and a saute of squash blossoms and lambs quarters (you can use other greens.)

Lesterloon’s goal is for Mexicans to become more aware of their past and their present, of the riches within our borders, dishes and ingredients that should be preserved and incorporated into our menus. and to realize that our cuisine lends itself to a dialogue that goes way beyond flavor and particular dishes. It speaks to us about a way of life, about the relationship between man and his environment and the way we interact with each other.  Lesterloon put it much more eloquently in Spanish so I leave his words here for those who understand.

El fin del recetario es que los mexicanos seamos conscientes del pasado y presente que tenemos. De los prodigios que aguardan entre los rincones de nuestra geografía. Saber que hay platillos, ingredientes y tradiciones que debemos retomar y preservar. Saber que nuestra cocina nos propone un diálogo más allá del sabor o del platillo. Nos habla de un modo de vida, de una relaciones entre el ser humano y su medio, de una comunicación entre nuestros semejantes.