Barbara Sibley - La Palapa + Guest Tara Bench
WHO: Barbara Sibley is chef-owner of La Palapa Cocina Mexicana and the La Palapa Taco Bars. Guest Chef Tara Bench, food editor, recipe developer, and entertaining expert behind Tara Teaspoon, will be providing the dessert.
ABOUT: Barbara Sibley was born and raised in Mexico City. For many years, she has collected traditional, rare and ancient Mexican recipes, including 17th-century recipes from Mexico’s convent kitchens and traditional ingredients. Her influences include Diana Kennedy, the well-known cookbook author, as well as the many regional cooks she has met in her travels throughout Mexico. Her extensive experience led her to open La Palapa Cocina Mexicana in 2000. As a truly authentic Mexican restaurant, La Palapa has been awarded the “Disctinctivo” by Sabores Autenticos de Mexico Foundation, which promotes authentic Mexican products.
Barbara is a past president of the New York Women’s Culinary Alliance and 2024/2025 President of Les Dames d’Escoffier NY, LDNY. In 2022, she was awarded the Operator of the Year award from the Industry Excellence Awards presented by the Food and Restaurant Expo and selected as a member of the Fall 2022 James Beard Foundation Women's Entrepreneurial Leadership Program.
Sibley co-authored the cookbook, Antojitos: Festive and Flavorful Mexican Small Plates. She is a featured contributor to many cookbooks, including The Way We Ate: 100 Chefs Celebrate a Century at the American Table, Mocha, Women Chefs of New York, and WW Fresh Mex! During the pandemic, she served over 85,000 meals to frontline hospital workers, nursing homes, and soup kitchens. She has also appeared on numerous television shows such as Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, CBS Sunday, Chopped and NY1 en Español. Recently, she cooked her award-winning chili recipe on Good Day New York.
La Palapa focuses on Mexico City tacos and authentic regional Mexican cuisine featuring Tacos al Pastor, Mole Negro Oaxaqueño, Salsa Pibil and many other specialties from different regions of Mexico. Salsas and sauces are rich and spicy and fresh ingredients are used. A palapa is a palm-thatched shelter on a Mexican beach where you can relax with your feet in the sand looking at the ocean while you sip an ice-cold cerveza flavored with lime and salt, and eat a spicy shrimp taco with salsa guajillo.
ABOUT: Tara Bench is the food editor, recipe developer, and entertaining expert behind Tara Teaspoon, with nearly thirty years of experience in food media. She served as Food Editor at Martha Stewart Living and Food Director of Ladies' Home Journal before launching Tara Teaspoon. She is the author of two cookbooks, Live Life Deliciously and Delicious Gatherings, and her work has been featured on the Today Show and Food Network, and in publications including Food & Wine and Good Housekeeping.
WHAT: Join one of New York’s foremost authorities on authentic Mexican cuisine, Barbara Sibley, who was born and raised in Mexico, spending decades preserving rare and historic recipes while sharing the true diversity of Mexican cooking through her acclaimed restaurant, La Palapa. And joining Barbara is renowned food media personality Tara Bench to bring the class to a sweet finale.
The class theme: Day of the Dead traditions - a delicious exploration of the rituals, symbolic flavors and ways to nurture the connection to our loved ones, that makes Dia de Muertos the most important and festive holiday in Mexico.
WHEN: Tuesday, Oct 6, 6:00 PM - 8:00 EST
WHERE: De Gustibus Culinary Studio