Two years ago, when I was building my first altar, I wasn’t sure what my grandfather liked to eat. In general, the food element of the altar is one of the neatest ways to find out about your loved ones who’ve passed on. These little plates of food are made out of sugar and sold at almost any market in Mexico City. That said, here are some general elements to include if you’ve never built one before:Ī miniature plate of sweet bread and atole, with rice and mole to the left There’s no right or wrong way to do it - the idea is that it’s something personal that speaks to you. The course would teach us about the tradition of the altar and the history of Día de los Muertos, and we’d get to cook some typical Day of the Dead foods: bean tamales, pan de muerto and calabaza en piloncillo.įirst off, you can really make the altar any way you want. So I took the Día de Los Muertos Ofrendas y Tradiciones course at the Escuela de Gastronomía Mexicana, where I recently (last week!) finished up a diploma program in Mexican gastronomy. This year I was curious about all the altar decorations I kept seeing in the markets. It made me feel centered, like I knew where I came from. After the holiday was over I didn’t want to take my altar down. It was my first year in Mexico, so I put up a few photos and some candles, and a sugar skull I’d bought at the Feria de Alfeñique in Toluca. I had never built a Día de Los Muertos altar until two years ago.

A close-up of a Day of the Dead altar at the Escuela de Gastronomía in Roma

Building a dia de los muertos altar