Join Maite Gomez-Rejón of ArtBites for an engaging conversation and hands-on culinary lesson inspired by French pastry chefs.

The history of French pastries is closely tied to the royal courts of France, where master pastry chefs created intricate and delicate confections for the elite. Join Maite to trace the evolution of French pastries from the Middle Ages through the French Revolution. Discuss the role sugar and spices played in the evolution of pastries, make Renaissance sugar sculptures, and prepare petit fours for your upcoming holiday table.

Key Details

• All supplies and materials are included.

• All levels of experience are welcome.

Day of the Program

• Please check in with Education staff at Admission window #10 at 3:30 p.m.

• Registration includes free admission to The Huntington the day of the class.

REGISTER HERE

image: Cupid Among Roses, or Love Sentinel, Jean-Honoré Fragonard, ca. 1775, oil on canvas

Josefina Velázquez de León wrote a number of popular cookbooks stressing the economy in the kitchen. 

Join ArtBites's Maite Gomez-Rejón, curator of Josefina Velázquez de León: The Forgotten Legacy of a Mexican Culinary Pioneer, for a talk about Josefina's life and work and a demo of "Pastel de Elote," a family favorite straight from the pages of her book, La cocina economica.

FREE WITH REGISTRATION

In honor of Hispanic Heritage Month, please join Maite Gomez-Rejón of Artbites as she discusses the history of vanilla with a special demonstration on vanilla extract-making! A native of the Texas-Mexico border, Maite is an educator, writer, and cook who has worked for many cultural institutions including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. 

PLEASE NOTE: this program is a demonstration/presentation only. There will be no hands-on participation from attendees.

For more information contact: Krystal (310) 377-9584 ext 601 or kcosta@pvld.org

Lecture/demo meet in the Peninsula Center Library’s Community Room

In the early 1950s, Josefina Velázquez de León published a monthly series of practical recipes and holiday foods. 

Join ArtBites's Maite Gomez-Rejón, curator of Josefina Velázquez de León: The Forgotten Legacy of a Culinary Pioneer, for a talk about Josefina's life and work, alongside a demo of "Chile ancho relleno" straight from the pages of Septiembre: 30 menus economicos.

SOLD OUT

Class repeated due to popular demand!

Join Maite at The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens as she weaves art and culinary in this Taste of Art.

Discover the history of the picnic while viewing French and British paintings and decorative arts in the Huntington’s collection with Maite. After the tour, sip spritzes in the kitchen garden with Thomas Smith, manager of the Experiential and Teaching Garden curator, shares information on seasonal planting. Harvest fresh herbs and prepare seasonal salads and desserts suitable for a summer picnic.

This program will be held indoors in the Ahmanson Classroom. A portion of the class will include gallery and garden visits so please wear comfortable walking shoes. For questions about this event please contact Joy Yamahata at jharding@huntington.org or by phone (626) 405-3457. 

All supplies and materials included. Participants must be 21 or older.  $95/person

REGISTER HERE

image: Beauvais Tapestry Manufactory and Francois Boucher, designer, Le Dejeuner, 1757-1760. wool and silk with linen lining and dust band, The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Discover the role viceregal and convent cooking played in the evolution of Mexican cuisine with Maite Gomez-Rejón of ArtBites. Following the lecture Maite will continue sharing bits of history while demonstrating a traditional candy that weaves Old and New World ingredients, traditions and techniques.

The program is inspired by the special exhibition Art and Imagination in Spanish America, 1500-1800: Highlights from LACMA’s Collection. Attendees will participate in a tasting.  

FREE WITH REGISTRATION

image: Tray (Batea), Attributed to José Manuel de la Cerda (Mexico, Pátzcuaro (Michoacán), active mid-18th century), Mexico, Pátzcuaro (Michoacán), circa 1760, Furnishings; Serviceware, Wood, lacquer, and paint, Diameter: 34 1/2 in. (87.6 cm), Purchased with funds provided by the Bernard and Edith Lewin Collection of Mexican Art Deaccession Fund (M.2010.6)

In partnership with The Aster—a boutique hotel and members’ club in Hollywood—join us for Over Coffee, an ongoing talk series making sense of the world—with coffee. Each session we invite a panel of experts to discuss topics and ideas centered around food, hospitality, creativity and social issues in order to better understand the things that matter most to our community at a grassroots level.

In conversation with Life & Thyme Founder Antonio Diaz, we are thrilled to welcome Chef Brian Dunsmoor of the acclaimed restaurant Dunsmoor; Nakul Mahendro, co-owner of Badmaash and Burgers 99; James Beard Award winner June Kim, head of video for Bon Appétit and Epicurious; and culinary historian Maite Gomez-Rejón, founder of ArtBites and co-host of the podcast Hungry for History with Eva Longoria. Together, we will explore the art of storytelling at the dinner table, on screen, and throughout history.

FREE WITH RSVP

A conversation and workshop inspired by the exhibition, John Waters: Pope of Trash

Join the Academy Museum for an evening conversation inspired by the exhibition John Waters: Pope of Trash, followed by a cocktail making and perfumery workshop inspired by the films of John Waters with Saskia Wilson-Brown of the Institute of Art and Olfaction and Maite Gomez-Rejon of ArtBites.

Odorama was a ground breaking experience that timed sniffing odors with the projection of film. Saskia and Maite will be adding the sensation of taste to smell, both good and bad. They will bring people closer to the tastes and smells of peach, bread, coffee, church incense, yellow rose, wood, grass, and leather by pulling inspiration from a selection of Waters’s films, such as Polyester (1981), Hairspray (1988), and Serial Mom (1994). 



6:30pm | Exhibition Conversation, John Waters: Pope of Trash, Level 4 

7pm | Cocktail making workshop, TMT Lobby
7:30pm | Perfume making workshop, TMT Lobby 



$40/person

SOLD OUT

BIOS: 

Saskia Wilson-Brown is a Cuban,British, and American artist based in Los Angeles. In 2012, Saskia created The Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO), a social art practice devoted to access and experimentation in creative practices with scent. Through the IAO, she has launched projects with institutions such as Pulitzer Foundation, Getty Institute, Hammer Museum, Wallace Collection, and many more. In 2013, she launched an international awards mechanism for independent perfumers called the Art and Olfaction Awards, and in 2018 she started Open Sourcing Smell Culture, an initiative devoted to open principles in perfumery. In 2019 and 2020, she served as a visiting lecturer in the MA Fashion program at the Royal College of Art in London, and in 2020 and 2021, she was as a Ballen Scholar at New Mexico Highlands University. In addition to running the IAO, Saskia produces and hosts a radio show and podcast called Perfume on the Radio, is writing a book to be released in 2025, and is working on her PhD exploring the relations of power in the contemporary perfume industry at University College Dublin's SmartLab.

Maite Gomez-Rejón, founder of ArtBites, explores the nexus of art and culinary history through lectures, tastings, and cooking classes in museums across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. She has been a guest on the Today Show, featured in Food & Wine and Hyperallergic and interviewed on Good Food (KCRW) and The Food Programme (BBC). Her writings have appeared in many publications including Eaten Magazine, Gastro Obscura, and the Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Latin American History. Maite’s curatorial work includes exhibits on the history of maize and cacao, and on the forgotten legacy on Mexican culinary pioneer Josefina Velázquez de León (currently on view at LA Plaza Cocina de Gloria Molina in Los Angeles). She co-hosts Hungry for History with Eva Longoria on iHeart Radio’s My Cultura Podcast Network. A native of the Texas-Mexico border, Maite holds a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Grand Diplome from The French Culinary Institute in New York City. 



image: @Academy Museum Foundation. Photo by: Greg Gorman

Santa Monica History Museum welcomes culinary historian Maite Gomez-Rejón, the founder of ArtBites as we take a look at “El Cocinero Español” the first Mexican-American cookbook published in the U.S. (1898). Pinedo’s story and a tasting of her rice pudding recipe will be followed by a Q&A with local author Terri de la Peña, who will share stories about the rancho-era Marquez family in Santa Monica, including family pit BBQs and culinary traditions that were passed down through the generations. 

This event is FREE, and includes time for visitors to explore museum exhibitions.

image: @Academy Museum Foundation. Photo by: Greg Gorman

The Mexican Cultural Institute and the University of Texas at San Antonio are pleased to invite you to be a part of a Plática moderated by chef Pati Jinich featuring Maite Gomez Rejón and chef Rico Torres.

 In this Taste of History, we will learn more about the secrets of our Mexican cuisine preserved in the UTSA (University of Texas at San Antonio) book collection.

 At the end of the Plática, chef Alam Méndez will give us a culinary demonstration with some of the secrets of these legendary cookbooks.

$10

REGISTER HERE

In 2023, LA Cocina de Gloria Molina received a donation of cookbooks by Josefina Velázquez de León from the Barbara Joan Hansen Cookbook Collection from Kim Fay, author of Love & Saffron, on behalf of Barbara's nephew, Eric Ball.

This donation inspired Josefina Velázquez de León: The Forgotten Legacy of a Mexican Culinary Pioneer. In the late 1960s and 1970s, Hansen became one of the first food writers to document international cuisines in Los Angeles through her work at the LA Times, most notably her groundbreaking column “Border Line.” Like Josefina, Barbara was ahead of her time.

Join curator and food historian Maite Gomez-Rejón in conversation with Kim Fay as they discuss the life and legacy of Barbara Hansen, the importance of food writing, recording recipes, and the role of women in culinary history.

FREE WITH REGISTRATION

Join educator and culinary historian Maite Gomez-Rejón as she discusses Ed Ruscha’s Chocolate Room (1970/2023) through the lens of Oaxacan black mole (mole negro oaxaqueño), a sauce composed of a blend of chilis, spices, and chocolate. Participants will learn about the diverse history of mole, its place in the local culinary landscape, and how to transform it into a sweet treat. This program is presented in conjunction with ED RUSCHA / NOW THEN.

general public: $40 / museum members: $30

SOLD OUT

image: Chocolate Room, chocolate on paper, sheet dimensions variable, installation dimensions variable. The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Purchase with funds provided by the Acquisition and Collection Committee.
© 2023 Ed Ruscha. Photo: Brian Forrest

Join Maite, curator of Josefina Velazquez de Leon: The Forgotten Legacy of a Mexican Culinary Pioneer, for a private tour, demo, and tasting of creamy gelatins from Selecciones Culinarias: Jaletinas Artísticas.

FREE WITH REGISTRATION

Join Maite, curator of Josefina Velazquez de Leon: The Forgotten Legacy of a Mexican Culinary Pioneer, for a private tour, demo, and tasting of Sopa Seca de Frijol y Arroz Estilo Campeche from Platillos Populares Mexicanos: 30 Recetas de Frijol.

REGISTER HERE

Join Maite in celebrating Women’s History Month while discovering the rich history of Tex-Mex cuisine and the women that helped define it, the San Antonio Chili Queens.

Prepare a batch of chili and make flour tortillas from scratch.

$65

REGISTER HERE

image: UTSA Special Collections/San Antonio Express-News/Zuma Collection

Experience the new exhibition, Sargent Claude Johnson, with an exclusive tour and a hands-on cooking class inspired by the artist and his legacy.

Celebrate the life and work of Sargent Claude Johnson, as featured in The Huntington's temporary exhibit on view now until May 20, 2024. In this class, participants will tour the exhibit which speaks about our shared cultural heritage and then head back to the classroom for a hands-on cooking class with Maite Gomez-Rejón of ArtBites, to prepare a meal inspired by Johnson's travels.

Key Details:

• This program will be held indoors in the Ahmanson Classroom.

• A portion of the class will include gallery and garden visits so please wear comfortable walking shoes.

• All supplies and materials included.

If you have any mobility issues, dietary concerns, or general program questions, please contact Joy Yamahata at 626-405-3457.

public: $95, members: $80

REGISTER HERE

image: Sargent Claude Johnson, Singing Saints, 1967, tempera and enamel on steel, 30 3/4x25 1/2 in. Courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York.

Josefina Velázquez de León (1899-1968) was a Mexican entrepreneurial author, teacher, and cook who raised funds for social causes and empowered women within the domestic sphere of the kitchen. She created an empire unheard of in mid-20th century Mexico.

Largely forgotten after her death, she gave a national face to regional Mexican cuisine and symbolizes female empowerment and cultural enrichment.

Maite Gomez-Rejon will talk about the powerhouse that Josefina was in an informal discussion. A tasting will be enjoyed after the program.

free with registration

REGISTER HERE

Join us for Sensing: Odalisque, a multi-sensorial session exploring two paintings through scent, taste, sound, touch and sight.

Saskia Wilson-Brown (Institute for Art and Olfaction) and Maite Gomez-Rejon (ArtBites) join forces on the third edition of their Sensing series. In this edition, we will use our senses to explore to vital but challenging artworks on display at the Norton Simon Museum of Art in Pasadena.

The paintings we will explore are Woman in a Moorish Costume, by Jean-Frederic Bazille, 1869, Odalisque with Tambourine (Harmony in Blue) by Henri Matisse, 1926, and Women of Algiers, Version “I”, by Pablo Picasso, 1955. Connecting the works to the broader cultural context in which they were made, Maite and Saskia will share their research into the trade, the history and the material culture informing the paintings, bringing a greater depth of understanding and appreciation to these masterful works. As a group, we will also explore the context for the odalisque form, bringing a contemporary critical lens to the problematic construct in which these were painted.

Session breakdown:
Viewing at Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena
1:00pm-1:45pm: Attendees will assemble at Norton Simon Museum (Pasadena), where Maite and Saskia will lead a viewing and discussion of the two works.

2:30pm-4:30pm: The group will reconvene at the Institute for Art and Olfaction (Chinatown, Los Angeles) for a multi-sensorial session that incorporates all the senses. Attendees will experience the aromatics, the flavors and the textures represented (or implied) in the paintings, before participating in the construction of a bespoke cocktail. Drinks in hand, we will spend the rest of our time together composing our individual scent interpretations. Everyone leaves with a small spray bottle of their own perfume, and a greater appreciation for how the senses can enliven art history.

Click here for directions from the museum.

$150 includes museum admission

SOLD OUT

ABOUT MAITE

As the founder of ArtBites, Maite Gomez-Rejón has dedicated her career to exploring the nexus of art and culinary history through lectures, cooking classes, and tastings in museums and universities across the country, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the J. Paul Getty Museum. She has taught art history at the college level and has worked as a private chef and in restaurant kitchens in France and Mexico. Maite has been a guest on the Today Show, featured in Food & Wine and Hyperallergic, and interviewed on KCRW's Good Food and the BBC’s The Food Programme. Her writings have appeared in Life & Thyme, Gastro Obscura and the Oxford Encyclopedia of Latin American History among other publications. She co-hosts Hungry for History on iHeart Radio’s My Cultura Podcast Network. Maite has a BFA from the University of Texas at Austin, an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and a Grande Diplome from the French Culinary Institute in New York City.

ABOUT SASKIA

In 2012, Saskia Wilson-Brown's interest in multivalent practices led her to create The Institute for Art and Olfaction (IAO), a non-profit devoted to access and experimentation in perfumery. In 2013, she launched the Art and Olfaction Awards, an international awards mechanism for independent perfumers, and in 2018 she launched Open Sourcing Smell Culture, an initiative devoted to open source principles in perfumery. In 2019 and early 2020 she served as a visiting lecturer at the Royal College of Art in London, and in 2020 and 2022 was a Ballen Scholar at New Mexico Highlands University. In addition to overseeing the IAO, her current projects include a radio show and podcast called Perfume on the Radio for Lookout FM (LA), and pursuing a PhD exploring the historic and contemporary relationship between perfume, access and power at University College Dublin.

image: Women of Algiers, Version “I”, January 25, 1955, Pablo Picasso (Spanish, 1881-1973), Oil on canvas, The Norton Simon Art Foundation

Join chef-instructor Maite Gomez-Rejón of ArtBites as she shares the history of, and then cooks from Mexican Cook Book Devoted to American Homes by Josefina Velásquez de León (1899-1968). Velásquez de León was a Mexico City-based entrepreneurial author, teacher, and cook who raised funds for social causes and empowered women within the domestic sphere of the kitchen. She created an empire unheard of in mid-20th century Mexico. She published the first regional Mexican cookbook in the United States, which is in the Huntington’s rare books collection. Largely forgotten after her death, she symbolizes female empowerment and cultural enrichment.

Following a brief discussion, the instructor will demonstrate how to make:

• Prickly Pear Margarita 

• Pork Adobo

• Arroz con Leche Rice Pudding

This event will be held online via Zoom as part of The Huntington’s virtual series, “Taste of Art: Women in the Collections." The Zoom link will be included in your payment confirmation email, and the recipes demonstrated will be sent in an additional email two days prior to the class.

A recording of the class will be available to attendees and to those unable to attend the live session until Jan. 25, 2024.

For any questions or concerns, please contact Joy Yamahata at 626-405-3457.

90 minutes
$35 members, $45 non-members

SOLD OUT!

Celebrate the holidays in this virtual cooking demonstration. Learn about the rich history of baking in Mexico and bake cookies with Maite Gomez-Rejón.

Sponsored by AARP.

1 hour
free with registration

REGISTER HERE

The first Chinese immigrants arrived in Baja California at the end of the 19th century. Why? And how did Chinese immigration contribute to Mexicali's social, economic, cultural - and of course, gastronomic -development? Discover these questions and more in an informal platica with Maite Gomez-Rejón of ArtBites. 

After the talk, enjoy Chinese/ Mexican Appetizers.

$40

REGISTER HERE

Explore the history and traditions of English tea from the 17th through 19th centuries through paintings and decorative arts in the Huntington’s collection before preparing and enjoying afternoon tea complete with finger sandwiches and scones.

REGISTER HERE

image: The Gascoigne Family, Francis Hayman, British, 1740, oil on canvas, The Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens

Journalist and author Laura Tillman in conversation with art and culinary historian Maite Gomez-Rejón for The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García.  Book signing and meet and greet to follow.

A chef’s gripping quest to reconcile his childhood experiences as a migrant farmworker with the rarefied world of fine dining.

Born in rural Mexico, Eduardo “Lalo” García Guzmán and his family left for the United States when he was a child, picking fruits and vegetables on the migrant route from Florida to Michigan. He worked in Atlanta restaurants as a teenager before being convicted of a robbery, incarcerated, and eventually deported. Lalo landed in Mexico City as a new generation of chefs was questioning the hierarchies that had historically privileged European cuisine in elite spaces. At his acclaimed restaurant, Máximo Bistrot, he began to craft food that narrated his memories and hopes.

Mexico City–based journalist Laura Tillman spent five years immersively reporting on Lalo’s story: from Máximo’s kitchen to the onion fields of Vidalia, Georgia, to Dubai’s first high-end Mexican restaurant, to Lalo’s hometown of San José de las Pilas. What emerges is a moving portrait of Lalo’s struggle to find authenticity in an industry built on the very inequalities that drove his family to leave their home, and of the artistic process as Lalo calls on the experiences of his life to create transcendent cuisine. The Migrant Chef offers an unforgettable window into a family’s border-eclipsing dreams, Mexico’s culinary heritage, and the making of a chef.

Refreshments provided by Tequila Rejon

$12-$30

GET TICKETS HERE

With the crisp weather around the corner, join Maite virtually and prepare a soothing Caldo Tlalpeño, a hearty Mexican chicken soup.

Sponsored by AARP.

1 hour
FREE

REGISTER HERE

image: Danny’s Restaurant, Laredo, TX

The origins of the flour tortilla come with the arrival of wheat with the Spanish. In this class, students will make flour tortillas from scratch with Maite.

$60

REGISTER HERE

In Mexico, chiles are one of the five most important ancestral crops alongside bean, corns, tomato, and squash. Learn all about chiles and make three salsas in this virtual cooking demonstration with Maite.

Sponsored by AARP.

1 hour
FREE

REGISTER HERE

We know cooking best as an act of nourishment, love, and tradition—but it can also cut as sharply as the knives that chop an onion. In Sinaloa, Mexico, a group of relatives of desaparecidos (the tens of thousands of people who have disappeared from the country), have banded together to fight back against government indifference and complicity. Dubbed Las Rastreadoras del Fuerte, the members’ main method of resistance is to search for the bodies of those they love. But they have also brought their battle to the kitchen, where they cook missing family members’ favorite dishes, preserving their memories and reminding the world of the void their absences create. What makes feeding people an act of protest? How do the families of the disappeared continue to find communion, hope, and joy at the table? And where else can cooking be a potent weapon in the face of a fight that feels never-ending?

An exhibition based on Recetario para la memoria, a cookbook that collects recipes and remembrances from these families in collaboration with photographer and creator Zahara Gómez Lucini, is currently on view at LA Cocina de Gloria Molina, a first-of-its-kind museum dedicated to Mexican gastronomy. Zócalo and LA Cocina host Gómez Lucini and culinary historian and Hungry for History podcast co-host Maite Gomez-Rejón to cook pozole in the museum’s demonstration kitchen and discuss what happens when the kitchen becomes a battleground. Afterward, Pez Cantina will cater a reception using the cookbook’s recipes for pozole, mole, and flan. Zócalo and LA Cocina will send online participants the recipe in advance so they can prepare pozole at home.

This program is part of Zócalo Public Square’s 20th birthday celebration. We’re marking two decades of connecting people to ideas and to each other with special experiential programs throughout the year.

Co-presented with LA Cocina de Gloria Molina and California Humanities.

REGISTER HERE

image: "Pozole para Camilo," cooked by Blanca. Image by Zahara Gómez Lucini.

For those of you unable to attend the popular in-person class in Los Angeles, join this online event! Learn about the rich history of the picnic as seen through art and create delicious dishes perfect for outdoor dining.

Mark your calendars, grab your apron, gather your ingredients, and get ready to embark on a culinary journey from the comfort of your own kitchen.

MENU:

• Aperol Spritzes

• Watermelon and Tomato Salad

• Prosciutto and Brie Sandwich with Compound Butter

• Strawberry and Lemon Cookies

In your confirmation email you will receive a link with recipes and equipment needed for class. The Zoom link will be sent three hours before the class starts.

90 minutes
$30

REGISTER HERE

image: detail from Edouard Manet's Le Déjeuner Sur L'Herbe (Luncheon On The Grass), 1862