CHILLI chef Heather Biggs, from Wellard, admits some people are nervous when taking part in her cooking classes, but the taste of her authentic Mexican cuisine quickly wins them over.
Heather recently won an International Food, Wine and Travel Writers Association Excellence Award for her Karrimah Farm artisan food cooking classes and home-grown chillies.
She has travelled to Mexico several times and said the fresh produce and food is what made her fall in love with the country.
“It is very flexible, Mexican (food) is not necessarily hot, but it does contain a lot of chilli, some regions have very hot food but most don’t.
“Some people are nervous, but when they try it they realise there are beans, tomatoes and just a little spike of heat,” she said.
Heather enjoys teaching and introducing novices to authentic Mexican cuisine.
“If I can convince just one person to cook their own food rather than pre-prepared food I am happy,” she said.
“It is not Tex-Mex – authentic Mexican food is another world, really different to what they are expecting.”
However, there are some limitations on creating strictly traditional recipes in Australia. “We don’t get the varieties of chillies or dairy products… but we are authentic and try to use what we have here,” she said.
Heather was also the first person to grow Mexican tomatillos in WA and said they tasted like a mix of a tomato and a gooseberry.
Anyone interested in taking a class with Heather can visit www.karrimah.com.au.