
Traditional caldera, on charcoal burner
Last week I traveled to the Dominican Republic to document the work that Dede and Albert Pujols are doing for the people in the village of Batey Aleman, as well as other neighboring villages. Dede is coming out with a line of cookware inspired by the designs of the calderas used in Dominican kitchens, the profits of which will support their Pujols Foundation.

Dede and Nanny in Nanny's kitchen
I was inspired by the villagers, especially the women who cooked with Dede. There were five women chosen to demonstrate recipes with Dede, and they were all accomplished cooks in spite of using very basic equipment. There were no cutting boards in sight, just their bare hands. Their knife skills were impressive, especially when using machetes! The cooking heat came from a variety sources, including gas stoves, charcoal burners, and open wood fires. All the cooks were fastidious, cleaning all the ingredients with water, checking the rice for stones, squeezing oranges over the fish, etc. Dede gave each of the women a pot from her collection filled with ingredients, and the pots were well received. At the end of each kitchen session, we got to try the food, and it was wonderfully tasty. Later this week we will photograph the cookware in our studio with some of the recipes Dede brought back from the Dominican – I’m looking forward to that!
Another one of their endeavors is helping a group of local women learn to sew aprons, so that Dede can include a Pujols Kitchen apron with her cookware and support a cottage industry. To help with that effort, Dede brought her friend and seamstress Isabel Turner from St. Louis, who spent 3 days instructing the ladies. I learned that “Batey” is a word for a village settled by Haitian immigrants who came over to work in the sugar cane fields.

Seamstress
I salute the Pujols for the difference they are making in the lives of these people.
At the end of the shoot we stopped at the market in San Pedro de Macoris, and got some photos of some colorful characters. There are more photos from the trip here.

San Pedro de Macoris vendor