Flexibility is a key part of Public History that is often overlooked by many people. When working with the public, you are constantly having to adjust to the needs of the audience you are speaking with and teaching. However, it’s also important to be flexible in how events and programs are executed. No matter the planning, something always comes up. This past week I got to help with that flexibility when I received a call Thursday from my supervisor about coming into the Kitchen House Friday morning to help teach a class.

This was both terrifying and exciting as I’ve assisted in leading programs before but only ever the lecture/ front room part of the educational programming at the Kitchen House. I’m used to leading field trips, tours, and programs in a traditional museum setting with notes in front of me, exhibits to point to, and panels to reinforce everything I’m saying. Teaching cooking techniques in front of industry professionals is an entirely different ballgame. That being said, I was very excited, not only was this a brain break from curriculum creation, but this is the side of demonstrating and teaching food history that is my weakest. I don’t have a culinary background other than the baking I’ve learned on my own and my public demonstrating has been focused on historical techniques and dishes. Teaching modern food with modern implements was nerve-wracking but we persevered.

The content of the class itself was easy: tortillas. Emerging around the same time that corn was domesticated in Mexico, tortillas have been a staple of the diet of Indigenous people for thousands of years. With different legends surrounding the origins of the tortilla, I believe that it originated around 10,000 B.C.E. The word tortilla is Spanish, meaning “little cake,” and is primarily made using hominy, an alkalized version of maize. The use of hominy in tortillas is important as processed corn allows for the absorption of nutrients and proper digestion that raw or unprocessed corn cannot. Now, the process of making tortillas in our class setting came down to a few different factors: time, the amount of labor, and safety.

Our class was divided up into three repeated 45-minute blocks where we would teach a brief introduction to corn (5 minutes), another brief rundown on the equipment and safety rules (we were using tortilla presses and hot cast iron skillets to fry), and then the remaining 30-odd minutes to make as many tortillas as possible. Fortunately, this setup actually worked quite well for our age group: middle schoolers. They were able to stay engaged in the tortilla making process and were competent enough to understand and remember that they had to be careful with the equipment. It’s always a successful day when everyone is safe, so I was super excited when by the end of the morning we had no injuries. One of the classes was about 15 minutes late to their program, so once again we adjusted our program to fit the time constraints and were able to complete our tasks and get everyone back to their school on time.