Traditional Mayan Food with a Twist
Immediately following the official ceremony for the installation of Froyla T’zalam as the new Governor General of Belize this morning, a reception was held at the House of Culture. The event boasted flavourful dishes – all Maya inspired – with a unique twist from renowned chef Sean Kuylen.
Duane Moody, Reporting
It was a feast fit for a queen – well not the queen, but the queen’s representative and new Governor General of Belize, Froyla T’zalam. So to give homage to T’zalam cultural heritage, Chef Sean Kuylen headed to southern Belize to get the inspiration for the eleven uniquely made and plated dishes that were served today.
Sean Kuylen
Chef Sean Kuylen, Inspired Belizean Cuisine
“I went on a culinary journey for the last seven days. I have been sourcing things, way down – I almost got into Guatemala through Jalacte. I made white lime on the Hummingbird Highway. I got ubel, I got hoote; I got a list of things here. I get fish from Hopkins straight from six-thirty di morning. We have an extensive ten course here. As a matter of fact it is eleven courses because we have to pinol. It’s authentic from her. I sexy it up.”
Chef Sean is known to travel the country, experiencing the rich cultures of Belize and creating authentic cuisine with an international twist. It is documented on his social media platforms. But for this event, he collaborated with Claudia Saqui a Maya Mopan woman from Maya Center in the south.
Chef Sean Kuylen
“Whenever we have an event, the culture will dictate what I cook. Today is a special occasion. Miss Froyla T’zalam happens to be a Mopan Maya.”
Claudia Saqui
Claudia Saqui, Maya Mopan Woman, Maya Centre
“I get mostly the things that he used, like the turkey, I get it from the village. I kill it, I clean it. The grind pepper I did it and the coffee, everything. The sweet tortilla, the chukwa that he is talking about, I get it from the farm, shell it, cook it, make it into the little biscuit. The ubel that he use for the fish her get in Hopkins. The pinol, I had to roast it. After I roast it, I cool it down for four hours and then we grind it and roast the cacao same thing and then the black pepper and the other spices I use in there.”
Duane Moody
“How long this process take?”
Claudia Saqui
“Oh my. It take like a week.”
From a deconstructed tamales with turkey, cheese and roasted veggies to an atole and a desert version of a garnachas or tostadas that uses sweet corn, a chocolate ganache, mint and flower petals. Chef Sean and his team’s Maya inspired cuisine was fit for royalty.
Chef Sean Kuylen
“This is a hoote and it is a river snail and we took a little bamboo skewer, put some corn and atole, which everybody knows atole is corn and in Garifuna if yo take cassava that name sahou. But it is a sexy shooter and then yo pop it in yo mouth and everybody say wow, but it is really what we have been eating for many years. Yo see how yo have anthropology – the study of culture and food and people. This is almost food anthropology, but it is unofficial. I am documenting it because we don’t have a book to say this dah that and that dah this. And then just now when I gone out there, Misses T’zalam’s mom sat with me and she says this is bringing back memories because connotation is powerful. If you mi di live. The people that are watching this newscast that live in the diaspora, they smell tamales leaf and they remember their childhood. When we cook, we don’t cook with barcodes sir. We don’t cook with things from a label; we cook from the land.”
Duane Moody for News Five.
