From Great Grandma’s beloved carrot cake to Chicago-style hotdogs, every dish has its tale. Quinoa’s story begins more than 5,000 years ago—and it still lacks a tidy ending. Despite its lengthy life as a “superfood” with an insurmountable combo of protein, fiber, and minerals compared to its grain counterparts (like rice and wheat), the fluffy seed continues to provoke some unsettling questions. The New York Times asks: What is its rising price doing to the Bolivian natives who have held it so close to their culture? And: Is it kosher? The Atlantic speculates: Is it cursed? This fare’s fable began—in the United States, at least—with Stephen Gorad.

Millennia after the Incas sowed the “mother grain” and Spanish conquistadors dismissed it as “Indian food” and even prohibited its cultivation, Gorad started his love story with quinoa. It was the 1970s, and a then-30-something Gorad had abandoned his position as a director of mental health programs in Boston to develop his “spiritual consciousness.” The psychologist studied with the Arica School, where he first heard about quinoa though his Bolivian-born teacher, Oscar Ichazo. “Back then, quinoa was totally unknown in the States,” Gorad says. “Ichazo said it was something good to eat to enhance meditation practices.”

Gorad traveled to Chile to teach other psychologists, and when he came across quinoa at a market during a trip to La Paz, Bolivia, he had to try it. “I liked to experiment with anything having to do with food, like the macrobiotic diet,” Gorad says. “I bought quinoa the first time I saw it.” He prepped his purchase in a boiling pot of water, keeping the lid off to watch it cook. “It looked so unusual—there’s a germ that detaches when you cook it,” Gorad says. “I fell in love with it. And when you fall in love, it’s like a power overtakes you. Then I started asking questions.”

Quinoa growing on a typical small farm near Lake Titicaca. Photo courtesy Stephen Gorad.

Back in Chile, Gorad learned more about quinoa’s powers: that doctors found it produced the best wet nurses, and that it had a “gold standard” of protein, a perfect balance of essential amino acids that was unheard of in any other plant. “My mind was being blown,” Gorad says. “Then I find out quinoa can grow where no other food crops can grow—it’s a non-competitive plant. It grows in high deserts. It can resist drought, and it’s resistant to frost.”

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