How One Chef Is Fighting To Preserve A Cooking Tool As Old As Civilization Itself | Still Standing

This is an ancient cooking tool called a metate. Women in Mexico have been using it for over 7,000 years to prepare traditional dishes. Evangelina Aquino Luis spends hours grinding chilies and herbs for just one batch of mole. Mole is a thick, rich sauce that comes in many variations, contains dozens of ingredients, and can take days to cook. It's also one of the most popular dishes in Evangelina's restaurant, La Cocina Nanavira. Today, she's preparing a rare kind of mole called chichilo, but it's not on the menu because she only makes it for people who are in mourning. No me gustaba hacer chichilo porque enterré a seres queridos. Si da tristeza hacerlo. Evangelina has dedicated her life to preserving these kinds of traditions and methods. But over the years, she's watched cooks swap metates for blenders and even turned to packaged sauces from the supermarket. We visited Oaxaca, known as the land of the seven moles, to see how the ancient ways of preparing this classic Mexican dish are still standing. Evangelina buys all ingredients fresh at a local market. Ancho chilies are a kind of dried poblano pepper that have a smoky flavor. Back at her restaurant, Evangelina preps the onions, garlic, and sesame for roasting. She's part of the Zapotec indigenous group that's lived in the Oaxaca Valley for thousands of years. When someone dies, family usually prepare chichilo together. Evangelina made this batch especially for us, to be able to show the whole process. She puts the meat to boil in a handmade pot because the beef will take the longest to cook. In the state of Oaxaca, there are seven types of mole, and every family has their own variation on the recipes. Evangelina chars the ingredients on a clay comal, a smooth griddle to bring out the smoky flavors. The ancho chilies go first on high heat. When they get the perfect roast, she soaks them for about 30 minutes to rehydrate and soften them. Evangelina wastes no time. She roasts everything quickly, since this mole has to be made faster than other kinds to make it in time for a wake. The metate has been in Evangelina's family for 46 years. These grinding stones are carved whole out of a quarry, and they can weigh more than 50 kilos. Some commercial chefs have switched to blenders to make the process faster. But Evangelina says that hand-crushing the ingredients makes the paste smoother and helps bring out intense flavors from the spices. This is the most physically taxing step, and it can take two hours just to grind the ingredients. Indigenous groups in Mesoamerica have used the metate to make mole since the pre-Hispanic time. It's believed to have originated either here in Oaxaca or just to the north, in what's now known as the state of Puebla. The Spanish arrived in the 15th century, and people started mixing indigenous ingredients like the native chilies with other foods the Spanish brought. So today's mole is a fusion of pre-Hispanic and European cuisines. But the authentic way of making it has dwindled in popularity. Pre-made mole paste came on the market in the 1940s. Blenders became popular in the decades that followed, and they eventually replaced the metate altogether. But Evangelina says traditional mole still beats out the kind made in a blender. Lard is one of the final ingredients she adds. She melts it into a pot and adds the ground paste to fry. Then beef broth and corn dough to make the mole thicker. She stirs until the sauce is the perfect consistency. Fiesta moles that are served at celebrations, like one called Coloradito, have brighter and sweeter, and some even say happier, tastes. But this is a funeral mole. So it has a more subdued and muted taste. Evangelina's grandmother taught her how to cook mole when she was just seven years old. At 20, she learned how to make chichilo mole from the women in her community. At first, making chichilo mole was a heavy task for Evangelina, because it reminded her of loss. But when she realized she had a chance to preserve and share her culinary knowledge, it took on a new meaning. In 2017, she registered the brand Nanavida, named after her grandmother. She exports her mole, as well as chocolate, to the U.S. and sells them online. And Evangelina's work is getting noticed. This year, her chichilo mole won the award for the best ceremonial dish, and another for best decoration, at a traditional food festival in Oaxaca. Her restaurant is open for tourist groups and locals who want to eat the traditional food. She hopes her children will fall in love with cooking the same way she has. And if they do, they have her recipe. And of course, her metate. you