Just on the edge of The Mission District, a San Francisco neighborhood with strong Latin American influences, sits a contemporary looking building with the words La Cocina (meaning “the kitchen” in Spanish) stretched along the wall. Inside the building magic happens in the form of magnificent food creations. We were lucky enough to be a part of that magic last Wednesday night for their “Magic of Mole” cooking class, taught by Irma Calderon - a student at La Cocina.

It started with Irma’s recipe that’s been passed down through her family for many generations. But the recipe wasn’t the usual suspect we find in cookbooks. There were no instructions, no exact measurements. Irma’s recipe is one that relied on the ingredients available at the time, along with an expert palette to taste and tweak as the cooking process moves along.

Irma taught us all about Mole, which I was surprised to learn (along with most of the rest of the group) that it didn’t have to include chocolate to be considered a true mole sauce. Dried chiles, nuts and spices are all staples in the dish.

Jason (on the left) and Caleb (on the right) run the La Cocina program and lead the cooking class. Part of the class was learning how to butcher a chicken (the chicken was a key ingredient in the mole dish). Jason walked us through the process and helped us to sharpen our knife skills.

Nik, myself and Rob, were all suited up in our aprons cooking away. I think at this point we had already enjoyed a few glasses of wine (you know it’s a good cooking class when the keep your wine glass full…).

Irma gets some of the freshest ingredients from Mexico and these chiles were some of the best I’ve seen. They were dried, but still soft and fresh. These are the key ingredient to a classic mole sauce.

Almonds, walnuts, cinnamon stick, garlic, prunes and raisins get sauteed in olive oil. The combination of these fruits, nuts and spices create the rich complexity of the mole sauce.

Once the cooking was complete…it was time to enjoy our masterpiece.

The dinner table, in the middle of the kitchen, was all set for our authentic Mexican feast.

We enjoyed a meal of roasted chicken with Irma’s famous mole sauce, refried pinto beans, mexican rice, and a fresh garden salad. Fantástica!