Hispanic Heritage Month

Hispanic Heritage Month runs September 15 to October 15 each year, and the odd start date is the entire point.

September 15 is the independence anniversary of five Central American countries at once: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua all declared independence from Spain in 1821. Mexico's independence day falls on September 16 and Chile's on September 18. Rather than open on a tidy first of the month, the observance opens on the densest week in the Latin American calendar.

It started as Hispanic Heritage Week under President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 and was widened to the full 31-day window two decades later, signed into law under President Ronald Reagan in 1988.

Rockoly's workshops run all season, and our chefs are happy to host the same menus at any other time of year, which helps if your team's late-September calendar is already spoken for.

Every workshop here carries a piece of history, and your chef tells it while your team cooks.

• Mole comes from molli, the Nahuatl word for sauce. Pipián is one of the oldest branches of that family: where a mole poblano leans on chocolate, a pipián is built on ground pumpkin seeds, a native ingredient and a way of thickening a sauce that cooks in Mexico were using before the Spanish arrived.
• Empanada comes straight from empanar, Spanish for to wrap in bread. Nearly every country in Latin America has its own filling and its own way of sealing the edge.
• Pão de queijo, Brazilian cheese bread, is made with tapioca starch from the cassava root instead of wheat. That is why it is chewy in a way no wheat roll manages, and why it is naturally gluten-free.
• Street tacos are small on purpose: a palm-sized corn tortilla, one filling, eaten standing up at the stall. Add the guacamole and handmade tortillas and your team presses its own tortillas from masa.

Finish with a margarita or a horchata add-on and the last half hour turns into a party rather than a webinar.

It does, and it's worth saying plainly. Hispanic Heritage Month centers heritage tied to Spain and Spanish-speaking Latin America, while many organizations observe it as Hispanic and Latino Heritage Month so that Portuguese-speaking Brazil is included too. This page reflects that wider read: Mexican Street Tacos and Pipian Mole from Mexico, churros and empanadas that belong to half a dozen countries, and Brazilian Cheese Bread. Pick whichever fits how your ERG frames the month. Customization is free, so if you want the chef to weight the session toward one country's cooking, or you'd rather book two dates and cover more ground, your planner will set it up.

It's a cooking class run by a professional chef, so the answer largely takes care of itself. Your team spends the hour on real technique, pressing tortillas, toasting seeds for the mole and piping churro dough, and the cultural context comes from the person teaching it. No costumes and no props, just a kitchen and a recipe. You don't need experienced cooks either: the chef sets the pace to the slowest kitchen, and the Zoom host runs trivia and a mini scavenger hunt so the quieter half of the call stays in it. If your ERG wants its own remarks up front, tell your planner when you book. Aprons are available as an add-on for the group photo.

No, and they're usually the best part of the hour. A professional chef is teaching a dish properly rather than walking beginners through a demonstration, so there's craft in it: a pipián is thickened with ground seeds instead of chocolate, which isn't how most people build a sauce at home. Someone who's cooked this food their whole life still tends to take something away, and they're the one with the family version everyone on the call wants to hear. Customization is free, so tell your planner if you want more time on one country, or the last stretch of the hour left open for teammates to say how it's done at home. The worst version of this event is the one where the people the month is about sit quietly.

Yes. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, kosher and no-alcohol versions cost nothing extra when shared in advance, and several menus already qualify: the empanadas and churros are vegetarian, the tacos have black bean versions, and the Brazilian cheese bread is naturally gluten-free. Ingredients ship free within the US and internationally to Australia, the UK, Canada, Sweden, Ireland, Germany, South Africa, Mexico, India and Spain, among others; anyone off the delivery map gets a shopping list instead. Zoom is the default, with Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and WebEx also supported. Groups run from 3 to 600 and up, and very large teams split by department or across two days, which also solves an impossible timezone.

The rate is the entire event. It buys the chef, the Zoom host running trivia and the chat, and a dedicated planner; every ingredient delivered, shipped free and insured inside the US, in kits portioned to feed four; and free customization, free dietary adjustments and all service fees.

Only the extras are quoted separately: guacamole and tortillas pressed from masa, a margarita, a horchata, an apron for everyone. And partners and family cook on the same screen at no charge, which during a month built around family tables is usually the line people quote back to us.

Send the form on this page and a Rockoly event specialist comes back with menus, open dates and a quote. The awkward part of this observance is that it straddles two months, so the good slots go in two waves: late September first, then the run down to October 15. Three weeks of lead time is the usual ask, and more if you want a date in the busiest fortnight. Rush dates are sometimes possible depending on chef availability.

If the window is already full, remember that our chefs will host these same menus at any point in the year, and plenty of teams deliberately celebrate in November when nobody is competing for a Thursday.

Holding a date takes a $250 deposit, by credit card, ACH transfer or check. Cancel 21 or more days out and you are refunded what you paid less any nonrecoverable costs already committed; 8 to 20 days out you choose between a 50% refund and a 100% Rockoly credit; inside 8 days payments are nonrefundable, though one complimentary reschedule is yours if you ask 14+ days ahead. Every event carries the Love Your Event Guarantee, so if yours doesn't live up to expectations, we'll make it right. Call (617) 939-9732 if you would rather start with a conversation.

Hispanic Heritage Month runs from September 15 to October 15 each year. Rockoly's Hispanic Heritage Month cooking workshops are available throughout the season — and our chefs are happy to host the same menus at any other time of year.

Pick a workshop like Mexican Street Tacos, Cheese & Corn Empanadas, or Pipian Mole, and tell us your headcount and preferred date. We deliver fresh ingredients to every participant with free US shipping, and a welcoming Rockoly chef leads your team live, sharing the cultural story behind each dish. A dedicated event planner handles all the logistics.