New World Cuisine: The Histories of Chocolate, Mate y Ms (Santa Fe, September 28, 2012)An exploration of the dawn

of world cuisine as we knowand consumeit today opens December 9, 2012 at the Museum of International Folk Art with New World Cuisine: The Histories of Chocolate, Mate Y Ms. The exhibition runs through January 5, 2014. New World Cuisine explores how foods around the world developed from mixing the old and the new, and how many of the tastiest dishes and desserts came to be associated with New Mexico. The mixing of peoples and foodsthe fusion of cultures and traditions referred to as mestizajebegan in August 1598. It was then that Juan de Oates 500-strong expedition of soldiers, families, and Franciscan friars settled in New Mexico on the fertile and irrigated farmland of the Tewa Pueblos of Yungue and Okhay, located at the confluence of the Chama and Rio Grande Rivers. But the ingredients for change were tossed into the melting pot a century before by Christopher Columbus when foods from the Old World were mixed with those of the new and brought improvements from farm to table. The Old World gained new staple crops, including potatoes, sweet potatoes, maize, and cassava. Tomatoes, chili peppers, cacao, peanuts, and pineapples also were introduced, and some became culinary centerpieces in many Old World countries: the tomato in Mediterranean countries Italy, Greece, and Spain; the chili pepper in India, Korea, Thailand, and China, via the Philippines; and paprika made from chili peppers, in Hungary. New World foods brought caloric and nutritional improvements over previously existing staples; others, like tomato and chili, complemented existing foods and traditional recipes, adding not only nourishment but also new, improved taste. Because the New Worlds vast and unpopulated fertile land was well suited for cultivating the same crops in high demand in Old World markets, the Americas became the main global supplier. Moreover, the increased supplies lowered prices for commodities such as sugar, coffee, soybeans, oranges, and bananas making them affordable for the first time to the general population. Historian Alfred Crosby notes that by planting American crops the Old World farmer was able to produce food from soils that prior to 1492 grew little. Crosby even posits that the seeds of

exchange created enormous wealth in the Old World and improved nutrition resulting in a population explosion, and eventually fueled the Industrial Revolution. To be sure, farming techniques were traded from one world to the other, with farmers from both developing a mutual appreciation for those that proved successful in weather and soil, good or bad. And while crops and cuisines changed in the Old World, Franciscan monks in the new furthered culinary and cultural fusion. From the fruits of New World farmers labors, mission kitchens became laboratories where indigenous squash, corn, and beans were taste-tested with the Spanish meats, dairy, and spices to create many of the foods enjoyed to this day. On view will be more than 300 objects objects from the museums vast collection of historical culinary items related to food harvesting, preparation, table settings, and utilitarian and decorative implements. Some examples are Asian and European spice jars retrofitted with intricately detailed locking metal lids in Mexico City to protect a households cacao from thieves; traditional pottery cooking vessels reimagined by metal smiths using hammered copper to accommodate the molinillo used to froth chocolate; talavera kitchen and tableware modeled after Chinese import porcelains; fine antique and contemporary silverware from Europe and the Americas. All provide insight into the importance placed on crafting exquisite food vessels and implementsand that you are what you eat with. Its such a fabulous history, curator Nicolasa Chvez said. Were borrowing one little teeny tiny pottery sherd from Chaco Canyon that was tested for theobroma (chocolates scientific name). I wanted that in the exhibit to really bring home to New Mexico that weve had a 1,000year-old love affair with chocolate. The exhibition, which remains open through January 2014, is about cultural heritage, nourishment, and regenerationperfect subjects to begin a New Year.

Media Contacts: Nicolasa Chavez Curator of Spanish Colonial and Contemporary Hispano/Latino Collections 505-476-1219 Nicolasa.Chavez@state.nm.us Steve Cantrell PR Manager

505-476-1144 Steve.Cantrell@state.nm.us ### The Museum of International Folk Art houses the worlds largest collection of international folk art, with the popular ongoing exhibition Multiple Visions: A Common Bond in the Girard Wing. Changing and traveling exhibitions are offered in the Bartlett Wing and exhibitions highlighting textiles are featured the Neutrogena Wing. Lloyds Treasure Chest offers visitors interactive displays about collections and how museums care for collections. The Museum of International Folk Art is a Division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. Information for the Public Location: The Museum of International Folk Art is located on Museum Hill, Camino Lejo off Old Santa Fe Trail. Contact: 505-476-1200 or www.internationalfolkart.org. Days/Times: Tuesday through Sunday, 10:00 A.M.-5:00 P.M. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day the Museum is open 7 days a week, including Mondays. Admission: Adult single-museum admission is $6 for New Mexico residents, $9 for nonresidents; OR $15 for one-day pass to two museums of your choice (Museum of Indian Arts and Culture, Museum of International Folk Art, New Mexico Museum of Art, and New Mexico History Museum/Palace of the Governors) OR $20 four-day pass to the four museums listed above. Youth 16 and under, Foundation Members, and New Mexico Veterans with 50% or more disability always free. Sundays: New Mexico residents with ID are admitted free. Students with ID receive a $1 discount. Wednesdays: New Mexico resident seniors (60+) with ID are free. Field Trips There is no charge for educational groups attending the museum with their instructor and/or adult chaperones. Contact the Tours office by phone at (505) 476-1140 or (505) 476-1211 to arrange class/group visits to the Museum.

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Eat, Drink, and Taste History The museum continues that tradition of mixing and sharing by offering visitors free recipe cards and asking them to share details of their favorite dishes. Find inspiration for your table settings and your palate as you learn more about the items nearly every kitchen stocks today.

[LOGO] Whether prepared by combining indigenous New World corn, squash, potatoes, (and who can forget chocolate?) with Old World imports like cattle, fruits and spices, back in the 15th century, recipes for carne adovada, capirotada, posole, calabacitas, quesadilla, and enchiladas remain relatively unchanged and are still devoured in homes and restaurants today.

NEW WORLD FOOD FACTS POTATOES Discovered in the Andes Arrived in Ireland toward the end of the 16th century and a food staple by 1625 Huge impact on development of Old World providing abundant supply of calories and nutrients Able to sustain life better than any other food when consumed as the sole food sourceespecially when combined with dairy Improved nutrition spurred population growth By end of 18th century, the Irish consumed around ten pounds a day.

CAPSICUM PEPPERS Discovered in what is now Bolivia and southern Brazil Archaeologists have found evidence of chile cultivation in Central America from as early as 3000 BC, making chiles one of the oldest crops cultivated. Around 1500 BC, the Mayans appear to be the first to mix chile powder with water to make a sauce for spreading on tortillas.

 Chile peppers transformed world cuisine through a simple historical accidentof sorts. When demand for black pepper sent European explorers abroad for new sources of the spice, Columbus went looking. Though he reached the West Indies, he did not find the lucrative black pepper and instead found chiles, which he called peppers. Perhaps that was to compensate for his failure. Probably that was the beginning of nomenclatural confusion. Definitely his was a real find. And a moveable find for feasting it was. By 1493, chile arrived in Spain and Africa; by 1542, in India; by 1569, it was in Hungary where it was dried and ground into paprika; not long after, chile was in Korea, Malayasia, Thailand, and China. Chile has been used as a natural coloring for more than two decades, replacing a red dye banned because of cancer risks. A chile grown in New Mexico called NuMex Garnet produces the reddest pigment commercially available and is found in products from lipstick to pepperoni. You write chili, we write chile. In most of the world, chile, ending in e is the South American country; chili with an i is the fiery pod. Yet in New Mexico the hot peppers are spelled chile and chili with an i is what restaurants serve. The New Mexican spelling was entered

into the Congressional Record in 1983 by then US Senator Pete Domenici, and using Hatch Green Chile, a restaurant will stake its reputation on a mean bowl of chili. By weight, chiles contain more Vitamin A than any other food and are rich in Vitamin B; served raw, chiles contains more Vitamin C than sister fruits. Aids in digestion and alleviates pain from arthritis

TOMATOES Botanists believe that around 1,000 years before the Spanish arrived in the Americas an unidentified wild ancestor of the tomato made its way north and came to be cultivated in South and Central America. First mentioned in European texts in 1544 First documented authentic recipe in Italy in 1692 in Lo Sclaco all Moderna, by Antonio Latini Arrived in the Philippines in 1564 and the rest of Asia soon thereafter First cultivated in North Africa as early as 1671 Of all New World foods, the tomato has traveled farther and wider and changed the look and taste of more cuisines.

 Thomas Jefferson planted tomatoes in his garden, in 1782; not until the mid-1800s were tomatoes more widely accepted in American cooking. First mention of tomato in American cooking was in 1796 when Mary Randolph in her book Virginia Housewife wrote about gazpacho using tomato. First printed recipe for gazpacho, 1845 Arrival of French and Italian immigrants in the late 19th and early 20th centuries increased the tomatos popularity in American cooking Mechanization of canning in early 20th century (to meet demands of feeding the troops during WWI) significantly increased consumption Greece consumes the most tomatoes per capita, while Italythink pasta and pizzaranks sixth. Rich in Vitamins A and C and believed to reduce cancer risk from the phytochemical lycopene, a powerful anti-oxidant CACAO Perhaps the most amazing aspect of the Indians use of chocolate is their discovering how to make it: first, extract from pods; second, ferment at just the right temperature for the right amount of time to cause germination and

development of chocolate flavor; third and fourth, roast and grind. It remains a wonderment. The word chocolate is from the Aztec xocoatl. Latin name Theobroma cacao means food (or gift) of the gods and was named in 1754 by Swedish scientist Carl von Linn Aztecs used the cacoa bean as currency. [O]ne bean traded for a tamale, while 100 beans could purchase a good turkey hen according to an Aztec document (A Brief History of Chocolate, Amanda Benson, Smithsonian.com, March 1, 2008) The bean was so valuable it was counterfeited (dark brown pottery beans mixed in) and remained so through Spanish colonial times when locking ceramic jars were common. Aztecs used chocolate for ceremonies. With the Spanish, who added flavorings to offset the bitter taste, chocolate lost its religious connotations but remained in the province of the elite. Outside of the Americas, cacao first cultivated in 1590 by Spanish off the African coast on the island of Fernando Po From Spain spread to Italy then to France with the royal marriage of Philip III daughter Ana of Austria to Louis XIII 16251637 Spanish colonial women were so addicted to their chocolate drink that their maids delivered the beverage during mass. These interruptions so infuriated

the local Bishop that he forbade the consumption of chocolate during mass and threatened excommunication. Soon after, the Bishop became ill and diedafter drinking a cup of poisoned chocolate. 1828, Coenraad Johannes van Houten (18011887), chemist and chocolate manufacturer, invents process to make a powdered chocolate that became known as Dutch Chocolate 1847, creation of first modern chocolate bar credited to Joseph Fry 1868, Cadbury markets boxes of chocolate 1887, Nestl develops milk chocolate Today, largest producers are Africas Cameroon, Ghana, Nigeria, and Cote dIvoire (the largest producer of all)

VANILLA From the tropical forests of eastern and southern Mexico, Central America and northern parts of South America From Vanilla planifola, the only fruit bearing member of the orchid family Like chocolate, a mystery shrouds the discovery of vanilla, made from an otherwise ordinary orchid, found in Veracruz, that required a complicated process to extract the flavor.

 Fermented pods produce the chemical component vanillin, which gives the pods their distinctive vanilla flavor and scent.

SUGAR CANE Was more successfully cultivated in the New World; most of the world land suitable for sugar cultivation lies in the Americas, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean Arrived in the New World on Columbus second voyage in 1493 from the Spanish Canary Islands and first cultivated in Spanish Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic) Large-scale production in the Americas created enough supply to move it into the everyday diet Provided a cheap and easy energy source for growing working class in Europe beginning in 1663 First consumed in tea and other hot drinks GRAPES AND WINES When Oate arrived in 1598 Spanish law prevented the export of grapevines to the New World to protect the Spanish wine industry. In the New World, wine was used only for mass but the wait for replenishments could be longand dry.

 In 1629, Fray Garcia de Zuniga, a Franciscan, and Antonio de Arteaga, a Capuchin monk, smuggled vines out of Spain. They were secretly planted south of Socorro at the Senec Pueblo mission and from there to other New Mexico missions. They remain known today as mission grapes and are still grown in the state. By the 1800s, New Mexico was the fifth largest producer in the country and after 1880 and the arrival of the railroad allowed New Mexico wines to be sold in distant markets. More than a million gallons produced during this time. Prohibition killed most of the vineyards; floods wiped out those remaining. Some 46 commercial wineries/tasting rooms now estimated production today is 700,000 gallons of wine a year according to the New Mexico Wine Growers Association