By Marlon Villa
Chef Paul Blanco led a class on Tuesday at Beach Kitchen where he demonstrated to students different techniques on how to make vegan meat tacos.
As part of the Latinx Heritage Month event lineup, Blanco instructed students not just on the process of making the vegan meat, but also on how to make pico de gallo salsa.
Highlighting the importance of a popular Latinx meal such as tacos, this course gave students a greater insight as to what goes behind making it.
Sophomore Anthony Hernandez decided to take this class as it interested him to find different ways to cook food he was familiar with.
“It made my knowledge on food way larger, it made me realize how there’s way more ways to cook simple foods,” Hernandez said.
Sophmore computer science major Anthony Hernandez beginning the first step into making the spicy sauce before blending all the ingredients together. Photo credit: Marlon Villa
Despite many students struggling to keep up with the long step of ingredients, everyone seemed satisfied with the final outcome of their tacos.
Among the steps for the vegan meat was hand chopping the ingredients such as mushrooms, cauliflower, onions and walnuts.
Fresh tomato, oregano, paprika, black pepper, soy sauce and chili powder were among the other ingredients blended together with vegetables, which created the spicy sauce for the tacos.
After grilling the vegetables cooked in a pan, Gruaduate student Carrol Gudumoto blending the ingredients necessary to make the salsa pico de gallo. Photo credit: Marlon Villa
Junior An Lam explained how she now has a new understanding of the food and culture after taking the course.
“I didn’t realize you could get the taste of chorizo from a vegan taco,” Lam said.
Getting a taste of authentic tacos during Latinx Heritage Month is what brought graduate student Fhrey Modi to the Taco Tuesday class at the Beach Kitchen.
Modi did note, however, that there were some difficulties in the process of making the tacos and salsas.
“The most challenging was making the taco dough and making tacos out of it,” Modi said.
The opportunity of working as a team and using communication skills through the preparation process is what Modi took out of this class.
Chef Paul Blanco from the Los Angeles Hospitality Training Academy Kitchen instructed the course in the first out of the two classes he will lead this semester at the Beach Kitchen. Photo credit: Marlon Villa
Chef Paul Blanco encourages more students to take these types of courses because of the special qualities the recipes often have. This recipe required vegan ingredients, for example.
“You have virtually no animal fat, you don’t have any cholesterol and everything is plant-based,” Blanco said.
Blanco explained how you could eat up to three tacos of these and it would still feel very light. Eating tacos containing more grease typically feel like they could weigh you down.
Starting off with a hybrid tortilla, these tortillas are one part wheat flour and butternut squash and one part dough.
“It has three different textures, it also has roasted turmeric,” Blanco said.
Blanco believes these types of classes allow students to try different cuisines from different countries, expand their taste profile and further their understanding of food and cooking techniques.
The vegan meat tacos which included a hybrid tortilla containing, wheat flour, butternut squash and dough and which mostly included plant based ingredients. Photo credit: Marlon Villa
Concluding the cooking classes hosted by ASI for Latinx Heritage Month, Tamales 101 will take place on Oct. 12 at 4:00 p.m. at the Beach Kitchen.
