"A chef has to have a passion for the libidinal pleasure of eating."

When Jess and I showed up at 6 pm, I noticed something familiar about the chef teaching our Essentials of Mexican Cooking class. Jess, far more astute than I, immediately recognized her from Mario Batali's team on Iron Chef. It was good to know that we were in seasoned hands.

The class lasted until 10:30 and during that time the original fifteen paired off into groups of three. My group worked on the chili poblanos rellanos, guacamole, huitlachoce con calabacitas estilo queretaro, and churros. Helping us with our cooking was the liberal flowing of mango margaritas and beer provided by Chef Anne. I got to learn how to hold a chef's knife properly, dice onions the correct way, an caramelize them. Later when the cooking was over, we got to feast on our results, which also included Mexican wedding cookies, shrimp in pumpkin seed sauce (oh my god yum), green corn soup, homemade tortillas, and tamales. I was so ungodly full by the end and it was a nice way to end a rather shit-tastic week.

And I got to go home with leftovers.