2008 Woodie Awards
Yanomami Cuisine
Venezuelan chef serves termite, monkey and spider dishes inspired by isolated tribe
Associated Press
Issue date: 4/4/07 Section: Features
As a child in Puerto Ayacucho, gateway to Venezuela's remote southern rainforests, Nelson Mendez was fascinated by tales of the isolated Yanomami Indians and their unusual diet.
"The old men would say: 'The Yanomami have so many children because the monkeys they eat make them extremely virile,' or 'Those Indians walk through the forest for days, and they survive eating only spiders,'" Mendez said.
Years later, the 43-year-old chef's fascination continues. And now he is working to preserve the Yanomami culture by bringing their cuisine to the mainstream, holding demonstrations on how to please discriminating palates with termites, monkeys and spiders.
"At the first event I held, everyone was shocked," he said during a recent food fair. "After people try these things, they change."
During a demonstration at the fair, an audience of amateur cooks and students gasped as Mendez unveiled a smoked white monkey used to make soup and his assistants handed out cookies made with "Bachaco," large ants with an enduring, spicy aftertaste.
A tribe of isolated villages, the Yanomami inhabit mostly temporary settlements on both sides of Venezuela's border with Brazil. Traditionally, Venezuela's 6,150 Yanomami have lived by gathering, fishing and hunting with bows and blow guns.
Mendez _ who is the first chef in Venezuela to try to popularize Yanomami cuisine and is careful to use only animals that are not endangered _ said he chose the tribe "because they're the most ethnically pure of them all, and don't like to be near what they call 'the white man,' close to what we call civilization."
During trips into the jungles of Amazonas state, where the Yanomami live, Mendez tries to help the tribe financially by hiring members to gather the ingredients he needs to replicate their foods. Ingredients such as tarantulas and giant ants.
He usually pays about 500 bolivars (20 U.S. cents) for each tarantula they catch, which involves luring the spiders out of holes.
"The old men would say: 'The Yanomami have so many children because the monkeys they eat make them extremely virile,' or 'Those Indians walk through the forest for days, and they survive eating only spiders,'" Mendez said.
Years later, the 43-year-old chef's fascination continues. And now he is working to preserve the Yanomami culture by bringing their cuisine to the mainstream, holding demonstrations on how to please discriminating palates with termites, monkeys and spiders.
"At the first event I held, everyone was shocked," he said during a recent food fair. "After people try these things, they change."
During a demonstration at the fair, an audience of amateur cooks and students gasped as Mendez unveiled a smoked white monkey used to make soup and his assistants handed out cookies made with "Bachaco," large ants with an enduring, spicy aftertaste.
A tribe of isolated villages, the Yanomami inhabit mostly temporary settlements on both sides of Venezuela's border with Brazil. Traditionally, Venezuela's 6,150 Yanomami have lived by gathering, fishing and hunting with bows and blow guns.
Mendez _ who is the first chef in Venezuela to try to popularize Yanomami cuisine and is careful to use only animals that are not endangered _ said he chose the tribe "because they're the most ethnically pure of them all, and don't like to be near what they call 'the white man,' close to what we call civilization."
During trips into the jungles of Amazonas state, where the Yanomami live, Mendez tries to help the tribe financially by hiring members to gather the ingredients he needs to replicate their foods. Ingredients such as tarantulas and giant ants.
He usually pays about 500 bolivars (20 U.S. cents) for each tarantula they catch, which involves luring the spiders out of holes.
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