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P R C C
Cooks

24.2.2020

Profile

Alam Mendez

Chef

Alam is the founding chef of the restaurant “Pasillo de humo” in Mexico City. Originally from Oaxaca, his style combines traditional Oaxacan recipes taught to him by his family with a contemporary twist. He was a finalist for the “San Pelegrino Young Chef Award” in 2018.

During the 2018 pilot, Alam visited the Marqués de Comillas area for a week, taking with him his extensive knowledge of traditional Mexican recipes. He experimented with recipes for the conserving of tropical foods, co-designed recipes for tamales with yucca and, together with Kika, a chocolate producer from Boca de Chajúl, developed the first Chajulean chocolate bar.

More from Alam here

The kitchen is a social place, a com­mon place to gather and connect. It is a place to share not only food, but stories, ideas, aspirations and initiatives. Colaboratory Kitchen is an ongoing mobile and on-site project that brings farmers, scientists, creatives and cooks together around the kitchen table to connect, exchange knowledge and prototype new trans-disciplinary solutions to farming; a test ground for ideas that conciliate land restoration, conservation, food production and better livelihood in farming communities. A response to the lack of connection between disciplines that are key for new alternatives towards more sustain­able and just futures.

The questions at stake are: How do we bridge scientific and local knowledge? What kind of interdisciplinary projects can we create towards a better livelihood and ecological resilience of farmer communities? How can we conserve the environment and its biodiversity in balance with sustainable food production and pair local consumption to global demand?

We create a space for a trans-disciplinary community to grow and take action, by sharing and cooking futures together.

The project was initiated in 2016 as a collaboration between Cascoland and the Forefront Project (WUR, UNAM), a joint effort to design spaces and tools of communication and action towards strengthening socio-ecological bonds, south of the Lacandona Jungle, Chiapas, México. Now a days the scheme is being developed in three rural locations in Mexico: Santo Domingo Tomaltepex, Oaxaca, Xochimilco, Mexico City and Loma Bonita, Chiapas, as a collaboration with UNAM, local organizations and a range of collaborations from professionals in different disciplines.