“Culture is very important in teaching a language,” said Nehls, who called on Hector Esteve of Paella at Your Place to cook up a dish of paella in her classroom to feed 30 of her New Richmond Spanish students.
Spanish teacher Sharon Nehls listens while Hector Esteve explains the history of paella to her New Richmond High School students.Paella is a made from rice, vegetables, meats (also rabbit, snails, seafood and crustaceans in parts of Spain) and spices and is considered the national dish of Spain.
“I have traveled in Spain and paella is what we ate when we were traveling and I wanted to give my students the opportunity to experience it,” said Nehls.
Esteve is a microbiologist from Puerto Rico and remained in Cincinnati for the past 30 years after he received his degree from the University of Cincinnati. He started cooking paella for family and friends 15 years ago and it developed into a business (http://www.paellaatyourplace.com/).
“I have been doing it for Spanish classes as a cultural exchange for a couple years to expand kids’ horizons about different cultures,” said Esteve. “A lot of times they will hear a name in Spanish and think it’s Mexican food but it is Spanish from Spain.”
While cooking his paella in a special pan called a paellera, Esteve explains the history behind paella and makes sure the students know the Spanish name for each ingredient.
“Paella is not a spicy dish in any way and completely different to what they have tried before,” said Esteve. “People confuse Spanish food with Mexican food, which is spicy because of the peppers they use. The Mexicans started using peppers in their food as a preservative.”
Hector Esteve explains the history behind paella to New Richmond Spanish students Cody Johnson (left) and Dylan Hobbs.Esteve doesn’t take snails, rabbit and crustaceans found in some traditional Spanish paella recipes to the classrooms.
“I only cook traditional paella for my family,” said Esteve. “Around here people are very skittish about rabbit, snails and things like that.”
His paella was a hit for the 30 New Richmond Spanish students who paid $10 each for the special lunch as seconds were the order of the day.
“I wanted my students to experience something that I could not present to them outside the classroom,” said Nehls.
New Richmond sophomore Natham Dixon gets a heaping serving of paella from Hector Esteve of Paella At Your Place.
