“This needs to be made known,” said Sara Arvizu the traditional cook from San Jose Iturbide as she shared dishes, ingredients, and experiences that o
“This needs to be made known,” said Sara Arvizu the traditional cook from San Jose Iturbide as she shared dishes, ingredients, and experiences that originate in the countryside and are served with identity
Leon/Gto News
At the Guanajuato ¡Si Sabe! Pavilion of the Leon State Fair, there is a voice that cooks with memory and purpose. Sara Arvizu Rico, an entrepreneur and traditional cook from San Jose Iturbide, came to this space to promote the ancestral legacy of her municipality and to invite families to taste a cuisine that preserves ingredients, techniques, and rituals from the northeast of Guanajuato.
“I am super excited and truly happy to witness this combined effort by the Secretary of Tourism,” Sara said as she started her participation in this fair, which was promoted by the Governor of the People, Libia Dennise Garcia Munoz Ledo.
From her native land, with her tourist vocation, Sara shows what was eaten before, how it was prepared and why that cuisine sustains the identity of her community.
“I was selling cookies in downtown San Jose and I said, ‘Well, what’s the traditional cuisine here?’ And with that question… my professional activity changed,” she said.
That curiosity led her to ask questions, listen, and recover recipes. “That question sparked my curiosity to learn what our food used to be like, and I started asking my grandparents, my parents, my family,” she said. Then came the decision: “I said, ‘This has to be shared.’”
Sara names her proposal as traditional mestizo cuisine, a project that took shape with institutional support. “This venture arose from a training course offered by the Secretary of Tourism,” said Sara.
From there, she designed an experience that opens her kitchen to visitors: “Mestizo Roots.” “I receive groups, I invite them to use the metate, the hand mill, to light the stove themselves, to get to know the sound of the stove,” she recounted. For her, that sound also teaches: “It tells them if it needs air.”
At the Guanajuato Pavilion, ¡Si Sabe! Sara presents a showcase of this culinary heritage, featuring nopales (cactus leaves) rolled with chilcuache (a type of root), local drinks and infusions, and traditional pastries. “I’m bringing a dish that’s very much my signature dish… nopales rolled with chilcuache,” she said.
Sara detailed the process with the pride of someone who learned at home and decided to share it: roasted, chopped, ground, and mixed in a molcajete with chili and garlic. “That’s why we call them nopales revolcados,” she said.
The ingredient that sparks the most questions among visitors is chilcuache, a root that gives character to the municipality’s cuisine. “That’s our main ingredient… it’s a root,” she said.
“It usually takes us three years to obtain that root.” Sara also spoke about its uses and what it represents for her community: “It’s said to have many medicinal properties… and we use it a lot in the kitchen for seasoning.” She mentions it in seasonal recipes, such as the fava bean soup for Easter and stews passed down through families.
Identity, in her kitchen, is also something to drink. Sara brought grass tea or lemongrass tea, an infusion that is part of the mornings in her community. “We often boil it in water and drink it like a tea in the mornings,” she shared.
Her story repeatedly returns to her origins, the countryside. “I grew up with a family in San Jose Iturbide, my grandparents… they taught us to eat a lot of what the land provided,” she recounted. Sara tells about rain-fed heirloom corn and local ingredients as a treasure that is still preserved in her home.
The State Fair of Leon celebrates the 450th anniversary of the city’s founding and also the 150th anniversary of the fair, where the Guanajuato ¡Si Sabe! Pavilion is added as a new space to recognize those who sustain the cuisine of Guanajuato with daily work, ingredients from the countryside and recipes that are not written down: they are inherited.
Sara sums it up with a direct invitation: “I want to invite everyone to attend the Leon Fair, to visit the Guanajuato ¡Si Sabe! Pavilion, and to experience our cuisine and that of my colleagues.” She then added an idea that defines her path: “We are a showcase of Guanajuato’s identity.”
Through the voice of Sara Arvizu, San Jose Iturbide comes to Leon to share its story.
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