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How does one teach a safety and sanitation course in a town where potable drinking water is scarce and electricity is reliably unreliable? That’s one of many challenges that Vito Racanelli, chef-owner of Mad Tomato, faced when teaching a four-day culinary curriculum to a group of students in Joyabaj, Guatemala.
Racanelli and his wife Amy recently spent 10 days in the Central American country along with other volunteers for the Send Me non-profit humanitarian organization founded by St. Louisan George Roller. With the ultimate goal of teaching people how to be self-sufficient, the free culinary program was geared towards helping students learn the basics in safety, sanitation, and cooking in order to start their own food counters or move into industry jobs in larger cities like Guatemala City.
Equipped with 33 suitcases filled with supplies, the Racanellis soon learned that “everything we take for granted is a huge luxury” for those living in Joyabaj. For example, the stove—the size of which you’d see in a Manhattan efficiency—was connected to a propane tank, and if they worked after the sun went down, they’d be finishing by flashlight. Rising at 5 a.m., the couple would write the curriculum and then work with a translator to make sure the Spanish-speaking students could understand it.
The water (all water used in cooking had to be boiled first) and electricity posed challenges for the curriculum as did some of the local food storage practices. Whole chickens, for example, sit out in the sun, with boxes of innards placed nearby to attract flies that would otherwise land on the chicken. The Send Me organization owns land in the area, and down the line, an agricultural society is planned that will both provide food and house visitors who come to volunteer.
Although wary at first of American intervention, the students—all adults and all women except for one man—quickly took to the classes, which culminated in a celebratory banquet with friends and family in attendance. “They were my students,” Racanelli says proudly, describing how their attitudes changed from suspicion to acceptance.
At the banquet, graduates and their guests dined on bean salad, roasted chicken with lemon-caper sauce, lasagna, sweet and sour chicken, deviled eggs (“they went crazy for those,” says Racanelli), French onion dip, and chocolate mousse.
As the banquet’s eclectic offerings indicate, the classes were less about Guatemalan cuisine and more about learning basic skills in addition to safety and sanitation: proper knife skills, how to get the most from a chicken, and stocks, soups, sauces, and spreads. A roasted red pepper and cream cheese spread was a particular hit among the students.
While the Racanellis hope to return to Guatemala soon, in the meantime they are working to bring together philanthropically minded chefs to develop a permanent culinary school in Joyabaj, expanding the current two-room outfit into four rooms. Casey Shiller, executive pastry chef at Jilly’s Cupcake Bar & Café and coordinator of baking and pastry arts at St. Louis Community College, is on board, as is Chris Lee, banquet chef for River City Casino. Racanelli plans to hold local tastings and dinners to raise money for the operation. He explained, “I do this because it’s the right thing to do,” and it sounds like others in St. Louis will soon have the opportunity to do the right thing, too.
