Rafael Pereira started teaching at CCAE in 1989. He has also taught at the Cambridge Culinary Arts Institute and both the Boston and the Brookline Centers for Adult Education, and has studied at the school of hotel administration at Cornell University. Besides teaching cooking classes, Rafael has written on culture and politics for La Planeta.

Rafael says, "My general approach is to give an historical basis and a cultural dimension to the food, and I do that by starting out with semi-lectures on the region whose food I am teaching. Teaching the way I do lets me combine my two passions -- history and cooking. Also, I love to share personal anecdotes, and because family is so important in Latin and Spanish cultures, I want to emphasize the significance of sharing food together. When I was growing up in Puerto Rico, my father used to come home late from work, but he would still sit us down and prepare us something to eat. It was implied that food was about the sharing of experiences."