Description: Chef Regina Escalante sources local ingredients from traditional milpa systems and supports urban farming projects to empower her French-style cuisine and invite her consumers to support local products; in this meeting of worlds we are taken deep into the Maya Forest to discover how milpa farming systems continue to evolve to protect seed diversity and stop deforestation.
Teaching ideas: The milpa is an agricultural system and a traditional knowledge set that promotes biodiversity and food sovereignty. To understand its importance, analyse how this method contrasts with industrial monoculture models and evaluate their ecological and social impacts. Similarly, students could explore the relationship between gastronomy and indigenous knowledge through the work of chef Regina Escalante, who incorporates milpa ingredients into her cooking. A valuable activity would be to map the most emblematic products of this system (corn, beans, squash and chillies) and their geographical origin, encouraging reflection on their significance in Mexican cuisine. To reinforce Spanish grammar, students could write a descriptive text about a milpa-inspired dish, ensuring they use verb tenses and discourse connectors correctly. They could also write a recipe to practice using commands.