Traditional Cuisine of Michoacán, an Experience to Relish

Traditional Mexican Cuisine celebrated its 10th Anniversary of its recognition as an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, by UNESCO. Michoacán was a vital player for this acknowledgement, since ancestral knowledges of the traditional cooks were used to define this category, and with this achieve the recognition.

Traditional Michoacan Cuisine

The value of Traditional Michoacán Cuisine has allowed many women from the peoples from different regions of Michoacán to be able to empower themselves and create their own micro-enterprises.

At Hotel Mansión Iturbe in Pátzcuaro, we invite you to support this achievement of traditional cooks and get to know their kitchens, when you visit their villages and communities.

Traditional Mexican Cuisine from Michoacan

Michoacán is a benchmark when it comes to “traditional cooks,” and in the Pátzcuaro Lake region, you can find several organized groups of cooks in different communities which, on occasion, are more than happy to illustrate their trade to visitors.

Visiting one of these Traditional Kitchens will be an experience that will allow you to delve into the culinary tradition in Michoacán Cuisine and understand its origins. These cooks, use recipes that have passed down from generation to generation.  We learn when they started their traditions and the ingredients used.  There is great respect for everything that is produced domestically.

The Guadalupe Virgin in a Traditional Mexican Kitchen

Traditional Cooks use products grown with the ancient “milpa” system, used to produce corn, chili and beans, and squash.  Wikipedia explains, “The milpa cycle calls for 2 years of cultivation and eight years of letting the area lie fallow.”

Ingredients of Mexican Cuisine

The garden part of their houses has a very relevant role in traditional Michoacán cuisine. That's where they have their orchard, plant their spices and aromatic herbs that give those flavors, such as chayote leaves or avocado leaves.

Authentic Mexican Cuisine from Michoacan

In these spaces, they also have medicinal plants and miscellaneous vegetables. There, you will frequently find chickens, cows, and pigs.

Thanks to the great biodiversity we have, Michoacán offers a wide gastronomic offering. We have a huge variety of dishes – many of them unique – which makes our Michoacán Cuisine stand apart.  One example is the use of blue, purple, black, or white corn in making tortillas.

Corn from the Patzcuaro Lake Region

Traditional Mexican Cuisine from Michoacan

On your next visit to the Pátzcuaro Lake region, take time to visit one of these Traditional Kitchens. In addition to sampling their ancestral dishes, you can observe how they cook, using molcajete, metate, hand-made wooden utensils, etc.

The clothing of traditional cooks is also an art, many of them use embroidered aprons or blouses, which can take months to make.

Give yourself time to live this culinary experience on your next visit to Pátzcuaro.  Discover part of our identity through food, and learn more about Michoacán through its flavors, aromas, and traditions.

Juana Bravo Traditional Cook of Michoacan

*Text and pictures property of Hotel Mansión Iturbe in Pátzcuaro.

We invite you to check more post in our blog, you will find information about Pátzcuaro and its surroundings that we hope will be useful for your next trip to our colonial town in Mexico.

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Hotel Mansion Iturbe
Portal Morelos 59
Plaza Vasco de Quiroga
61600 Patzcuaro, Michoacan
México

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