‘Chopped’ chef shares tamale gift with the blind

Her brow furrowed in concentration, Jesse “Chef Kirk” Kuykendall spooned chicken and pork onto the flat canvas of a corn husk, the focal point of her presentation on the history of tamale-making in San Antonio.

The chef was working in the kitchen of the San Antonio Lighthouse for the Blind and Vision Impaired, a nonprofit that provides rehabilitation services and employment opportunities to locals with limited or nonexistent eyesight. Twelve men and women clad in aprons followed her lead.

Jose Lopez, an assistant technology trainer at the Lighthouse who wore his waist-length black hair in a ponytail, had assembled about 20 tamales by around 10 a.m. Lopez was born premature and suffered retinal damage shortly after birth. Now 12 years into his tenure, he cannot see anything out of his right eye and carries a white-tipped cane at his side to help him navigate the world.

It had been a long time since he last made tamales with his family.

“It brings back some memories,” he said, speaking through a black mask covering the lower half of his face. “I was much younger back then, the last time I did it.”

Depending on the severity of their disability, the visually impaired, which includes Lighthouse President and CEO Cindy Watson, may have to rely on senses besides sight to prepare food. Watson has a hereditary eye condition that was diagnosed when she was 9.

“Whereas I think experienced chefs may rely on looking at something to see how brown it is or crisp it is, I would rely on … precision around timing and temperature to ensure that something’s baked,” Watson said.

Watson is not necessarily a worse cook for it, though she laughingly admitted, “I’m not the chef in my family.” One of her objectives as CEO is to empower Lighthouse

clientele to realize their disability does not have to limit what they can be or do.

“Just watching people like me in the kitchen making a tamale raises awareness about the capabilities of people who are blind, which I think is really a critical piece to community engagement,” Watson said. “We want people to understand that life doesn’t end with vision loss. With the proper training and techniques, you can live a fulfilled life with vision loss, and that’s really the important message that we want to get out through opportunities like this.”

Chef Kirk dispensed tidbits of culinary wisdom as the morning wore on.

“Chocolate goes great with any spice,” she said at one point to a chorus of “Ooohs.”

When the tinfoil pans on the countertop were filled to the brim, she began to transfer their contents to a big silver pot. Once finished, she placed a handful of corn husks and a plastic bag on top of the pot — to “contain the moisture,” she said — before setting it down on the stove and turning on the heat. Then the waiting began. Tamales take anywhere between 45 and 55 minutes to cook, Chef Kirk said. The “Chopped” alum and Laredo native had never before been asked to host a cooking demonstration for a roomful of people with disabilities. The prospect made her “very nervous,” but she described it as “very humbling” overall.

“You start to understand how the love language of food is all the way around (ubiquitous),” she said. “You’re talking to everybody when it comes down to it.”

The presentation represented the soft launch of what Amy Lane, Lighthouse director of public relations, hopes will be an ongoing partnership between the center and the San Antonio UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy Tamal Institute. The institute was founded in 2018.

“Just watching people like me ... making a tamale raises awareness about the capabilities of people who are blind.” Lighthouse for the Blind and Vision Impaired CEO Cindy Watson