Frida Kahlo lovers, here’s a chance to taste her cooking

Frida Kahlo, the cult-figure Mexican artist whose collection of photographs will be shown in a new exhibit at Long Beach’s Museum of Latin American Art, was also a cook. And to celebrate the opening of the show, MOLAA has asked Luis Navarro, proprietor of the popular local restaurant Lola’s Mexican Cuisine, to lead a cooking class based on her recipes. As a bonus, Navarro has convinced Kahlo’s nephew, an old friend of his, to participate in the event via a Skype Q&A.

Kahlo, a Mexican painter in the early 20th century, has attracted a passionate following around the world based on her art and on her tempestuous marriage to fellow artist Diego Rivera. Her life has been memorialized in paintings, plays, novels and movies. Her image is on the Mexico 500-peso note.

The class will be held at the museum Friday night at 8 and is limited to 15 students. On the menu: tinga de pollo, black bean stew and tostadas de carnitas. The recipes come from “Frida’s Fiestas,” a cookbook collected by her stepdaughter Guadalupe Rivera. Tickets are $40 and available by contacting the museum.

For Kahlo followers, the real treat will be the chance to talk with Diego Isunza, a Mexican chef who is Kahlo’s nephew. He’ll be doing a 10-minute question-and-answer on Kahlo, cooking, the family, and the arts in Mexico City in general.

The photo exhibit, MOLAA’s big event for this spring, pulls together more than 200 images from Kahlo’s personal collection. It includes photos by the artist and of the artist as well as some taken by friends for the artist.

The collection, according to museum curators, features a “wide range of photographs that shed light on a more personal side of Frida’s life, from family photographs, both traditional portraits and candid shots at the Casa Azul, to mementos of pain, love, and the artistic, intellectual and political milieu in which she lived. This selection from the Casa Azul trove also includes images by Lola and Manuel Álvarez Bravo, Man Ray, Tina Modotti and Edward Weston among others.”

Museum of Latin American Art, 628 Alamitos Ave., Long Beach, (562) 437-1689.

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