Three Sisters in the Garden: Corn, Beans and Squash

Participants will prepare a three sisters paella with wild native rice. This class highlights the Three Sisters—corn, beans, and squash—as both an agricultural system and a model of interdependence. The garden-inspired dish brings all three together, learning how these foods nourish the soil, the body, and the community when grown and cooked in relationship. The class explores ancestral planting knowledge, food sovereignty, and the lessons the Three Sisters offer for collective care and sustainability. Shared tasting anchors the learning in practice. Special guest, Dr. and Chef Claudia Serrato, Indigenous Culinary Anthropologist and Co-foundress of Across Our Kitchen Tables. Dr. Claudia Serrato, of P’urhépecha and Zacateca cultural heritage roots, is a Xicana culinary anthropologist, chef, and educator whose work centers on ancestral taste memory and the cultural power of food. Holding a Ph.D. in sociocultural anthropology from the University of Washington, she activates memory through cooking, teaching, and storytelling, reconnecting Native and Mesoamerican communities to ancestral ingredients and foodways. Her vision blends scholarship with practice to reveal how taste carries history, identity, and survival—whether in classrooms, kitchens, or community spaces. For Dr. Serrato, food is not only nourishment but ceremony and remembrance, a way flavors connect generations across time and space. Based in Los Angeles, Dr. Serrato shares her expertise through workshops, cooking classes, and public speaking, elevating Indigenous culinary traditions as vessels of memory and cultural continuity. She has been featured in the New York Times and New York Times Cooking Channel, Telemundo, NPR’s Good Food, ABC Primetime, HULU, TASTEMADE, Smithsonian’s Indigenous Voices of the Americas, the Natural History Museum, and more. While she strongly advocates for food justice and sovereignty, her work is distinguished by its focus on taste as knowledge and on the ways ancestral memory nourishes identity and resilience. Parking Planning your visit? Explore parking options near LA Plaza: Option 1: LA Plaza Village Address: 555 N. Broadway Los Angeles, CA 90012 *This parking lot is closest to Buffalo Wild Wings on Spring St. and Cesar Chavez Ave. If needed, this is ADA friendly and has ramps and elevator access to the underground lot. Cost: $3.50 every 15 min, $18 max Option 2: LA Plaza Parking Lot Address: 171 Arcadia St., Los Angeles, CA 90012 Cost: $20 Flat Fee (Mon–Fri); $15 Flat Fee (Weekends). Fees might change during holidays or special occasions. Arrival Please allow time to arrive early to find parking. Classes have a 5-10 minute late window but will start promptly after that time. Dress Code We highly encourage that attendees wear closed-toe shoes when attending an active cooking class. Photo and Media Consent By participating in this program, you consent to LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes using photographs taken of you for advertising, promotional, and marketing purposes. Newsletter Want to stay in the loop about our events and programs? Sign up for our newsletter!