Next week, deep in the Western Highlands region of Guatemala, the aroma of "gringo" chicken enchiladas, pork chops with roasted potatoes and vegetarian lasagna will stir the senses.
Volunteers participating in a medical mission in Central America have one benefit other troupes have not: Their kitchen leader and fellow volunteer is Scott Mason, chef and owner of the Ketchum Grill.
Mason leaves Saturday to spend a week with the Cascade Medical Team's mission in Solola, Guatemala. The group is a sub-team of Helps International.
The project's goal is to replace the traditional and unhealthful three-stone cooking fires used indoors and without ventilation by many rural Mayans.
Mason learned about the project at a Rotary International function. Wood River Valley resident Nancy Hughes gave a talk on medical teams' investigations into lung problems and burns among indigenous people—issues researchers linked to the three-stone fires.
"(Families) are cooking in homes without any ventilation," Mason said. "You can imagine what our houses would be like if we built a fire with no ventilation."
Burns were attributed to children tripping and falling on the open flames, he said.
Besides risk of burns and smoke-filled rooms, the traditional fires were not fuel efficient.
The new stoves, made of cinder blocks, steel plates and exhaust pipes, use 70 percent less wood than traditional cooking methods.
Initially, Mason wanted to help construct the stoves.
"I applied, and since I was a cook I ended up in the kitchen," he said.
Mason will feed approximately 85 volunteers—and perhaps the military escort that will accompany the group.
"Since I'm heading the kitchen, I'm responsible for the menu and ordering the food," he said. "I essentially ordered for 90 people; extra food because there's always something unexpected."
The organization sent him a list of items available for purchase in Guatemala City. Beans, avocados, chicken and pork are plentiful locally and will be used to create a hybrid of previous years' menus and Mason's own creations.
To get an idea of how to plan and what to expect, Mason spoke with a former volunteer kitchen leader, who was not a professional cook.
The advice he gave was to keep things simple.
"He said, 'Make it really easy,'" Mason said. "I can't do that. I'm a cook."
Mason approaches the trip with a good deal of excitement and a small amount of trepidation.
"It will be a completely new experience for me," he said. "Not cooking for that many people, but cooking in a strange kitchen for a week."
As an added challenge, the kitchen won't include refrigeration or many amenities found in North American cookeries.
Mason will have a team of six helpers, but they're not career cooks like those who staff the Ketchum Grill.
"The team is volunteers," he said. "There's a financial consultant, the daughter of a nurse (participating in the medical mission). They're not professional cooks, but I think they're all hard workers and they must have big hearts because they're going along, too."
Preparations for the trip include gathering necessary odds and ends—spices, latex gloves, malaria vaccinations—as well as mental fortitude.
"I'm trying to prepare myself for bugs," he said. "I really don't like cockroaches. But that's all right. I'll get by."
Mason is no stranger to donating his time and money to charitable causes—such as the local skate park and ski team—but his latest undertaking gives him a much deeper sense of satisfaction.
"It's more like we want those things, we don't need those things," he said. "This is a need thing. This is (about) life and death."
Chef Scott Mason, owner of Ketchum Grill, is heading to Guatemala to cook for a volunteer medical team. Photo by David N. Seelig
