Mexico: One Plate at a Time

Season 1, Episode 23

Episode Title: Chocolate: The Magic Ingredient

Air Date: 2003-06-13

Overview:

Mexico is the birthplace of chocolate, and to the Aztecs, it was the original food of the gods. Roasted, ground, and brewed as a hot beverage, cacao beans were imbued with divine properties and traded as currency. Today, when Mexicans talks about chocolate, they’re still talking about a hot beverage–it’s seldom seen in confections and candies. In Oaxaca, one of Mexico’s great chocolate producing centers, Rick shows us how the roasted beans are ground to order, then blended with sugar, cinnamon and almonds to the exacting specifications of each customer. In his home kitchen, Rick shows us how to make a contemporary invention of his own, a Mexican Chocolate Streusel Cake, and whips up a batch of Mexican Hot Chocolate. At El Moro, a beloved chocolate and churros eatery, we watch the process of making Churros, the light, crispy “doughnuts” of Mexico, and head back to the kitchen, where Rick shows us how to make them at home.