The Patsari stove is austere and non-seductive at first sight. It looks under-designed. But beyond its looks, this stove for making tortillas and household cooking incorporates significant health, environmental and cultural improvements. It was designed as an alternative to cooking with wood on open fires, a practice well established in 95% of rural Mexico. Patsari reduces air pollution as well as the amount of firewood needed to cook and keep the food warm. It improves cleanliness reducing the time women spend in the kitchen. The portable version from the picture has a large, circular hot plate called comal, which is sealed to the stove to prevent smoke from leaking out. The built-in version of the stove is made either from bricks or from a mixture of pottery clay, sand and cement. This stove-mix is poured into a metal mould, which has separate moulds for the combustion and heat-transfer chambers inside it. The stove takes about two hours to build and the stove-mix sets within two hours. But the portable Patsari has the same feeling of reliability and can also be transported for outdoor cooking. Over 3,500 Patsari stoves have been bought by households and around 70 by tortilla-making enterprises, at a price of 850 pesos (60 €). GIRA, the non-profit organization responsible for the development of the stove, trains local builders to build Patsari stoves to last, and keeps strict quality controls. Local authorities provide discounts for those who cannot afford the full purchase price.
