SaborUSA Continues to Make Inroads in Central America

Three dishes by Chef Rangel at the event

USDBC continues to be a part of the SaborUSA campaign, most recently at an event organized by the U.S. Embassy in Guatemala. The event was held at a popular high-end shopping center with booths displaying different types of U.S. foods and food products and a center stage for cooking demonstrations. USDBC’s booth featured recipes prepared by Chef Rangel, a popular Guatemalan chef, who chatted about the many ways to use beans and demonstrated recipes on the center stage. The booth had large banners and handouts with information about the characteristics of dry beans that make them particularly nutritious, healthy and sustainable and the quality and types of U.S. beans. Chef Rangel prepared three dishes for tasting: black bean pancakes with hibiscus flower reduction; black bean primavera salad; and chicken stuffed with black beans and cheese in a white cream sauce.

U.S. Ambassador Luis Arreaga samples bean pancakes

Chef Rangel said the pancakes were especially popular with children. This impressed their parents, many of whom requested the recipe. U.S. Ambassador Luis Arreaga visited the event, which helped attract considerable media attention. By the end of the day, the USDBC booth had served 800 food samples (no leftovers remained), handed out 250 recipe books (all that were printed for this event), and distributed more than 400 informational flyers on the health benefits of dry bean consumption and U.S. dry beans. Chef Rangel also spoke about the benefits of eating dry beans and of his innovative recipes to the public and media outlets. On social media, four postings had a reach of 4,500 people. The images below are a small sampling of those available on social media including the Todo Con Frijol FaceBook and InstaGram accounts (@todoconfrijol, #todoconfrijol). Follow Todo con Frijol on social media and tag us in any recipe ideas or cooking events around the world featuring U.S. dry beans.