Column: Agua Caliente museum exhibit shows Native cuisine

Wednesday, November 30, 2011  

"An exhibit about native California cooking opened at the Agua Caliente Cultural Museum in Palm Springs in mid-October, but I didn't get around to seeing it until last weekend. I would be very sorry to have missed it.

Not that it's one of those grand, blow-you-away affairs like Tutankhamun or the Terra Cotta Soldiers. The Agua Caliente Cultural Museum is small, charming and unassuming and the exhibit fits in it very well. But it's the sort that drops information into your brain and then spreads to color your thinking.

It was only due to chef Paul Woods' cooking that I even visited when I did. He's the executive chef at the Spa Resort Casino in Palm Springs and he demonstrated at the Palm Springs farmers market to publicize the event. He prepared three tasting samples based on California native cooking: a seared venison rubbed with mesquite, salt and ground ancho chile; a rabbit stew with napoli cactus; and a mesquite biscotti."

Get the Story:
Henry Fenwick: Museum embraces concept of food as art (The Palm Springs Desert Sun 11/30)