My Kitchen Library:Viva La Cocina Mexicana

Included on my cookbook shelf is a small well-worn paperback copy of Elena's Secrets of Mexican Cooking by Elena Zelayeta. Originally published in 1958, this 1973 edition of the cookbook was a gift to my recently married parents from my father's sister, Vicki. The recipes inside are brief, easy to follow, and clearly designed for a mid-century American audience using mild, often canned, ingredients that were readily available in the grocery stores of the time. As an adult, my interest in the culture and cuisines from the land where my paternal grandparents were born has grown. Seeking out authentic recipes has been an exciting and delicious journey.

Unfortunately, many in the United States have a limited, Americanized view of Mexican food, missing out on a rich and diverse culinary tradition. The roots of Mexican cuisine are made up of ingredients native to Mexico such as corn, beans, chili peppers, avocados, tomatoes, cacao, and vanilla, all of which were first cultivated by ancient Mesoamerican cultures. Modern Mexican cuisine is a blending of these indigenous components with colonial culinary influences from the Spanish and French. With deserts, rainforests, mountains, and miles of coast, there are countless regionally specific dishes to be explored across Mexico.

The Art of Mexican Cooking, by Diana Kennedy

Born in The United Kingdom, Diana Kennedy first moved to Mexico City in the late 1950's, shortly after meeting and marrying her husband, Paul, who was a Latin America correspondent for The New York Times. Immediately, she became infatuated with the food and people of Mexico. She would spend the next fifty years traveling to all 32 Mexican states, meeting with women in their homes, and in market squares, learning regional recipes firsthand. She has also carefully researched and catalogued indigenous wild ingredients unique to Mexico that have been foraged or cultivated since pre-Columbian times.

In The Art of Mexican Cooking, first published in 1989, Kennedy brings these years of research together into a thorough and vibrant collection of recipes. These are recipes and techniques that have been passed down over generations, a gastronomic retelling of Mexican history. Often her recipes make note of the village or state where she learned it, and many give specific named credit to the woman who passed it on to her. From the simple to complex, there are recipes in this book for cooks of all skillsets.

Last year, to celebrate a paired down Covid-era Thanksgiving for two, I decided to take on an ambitious recipe I had scanned over countless times, Mole Negro Oaxaqueño. The rich, complex sauce, which is traditionally made in many regions of Mexico for special holidays, sounded like a perfect pairing with a roast turkey breast (another food native to Mexico). For two days, I carefully followed Diana's recipe which has over thirty ingredients and ended up with a bubbling pot of beautifully layered flavors, making a memorable holiday feast. We were thankful for the journey that recipe had taken to end up on my bookshelf.

My Mexico City Kitchen, by Gabriela Cámara

While rooted in humble village kitchens, the modern Mexican food movement is centered in the sprawling cosmopolitan capital, Mexico City. Home to over 9 million people within the city proper (21 million in the greater metro area), Mexico City is the most populous city in North America, as well as the oldest capital city in the Americas, having been founded by the Aztecs in 1325. Recently, a new generation of chefs have expanded on an already established eclectic restaurant culture, cementing the city's place as a culinary hot spot. Gabriela Cámara is one of these celebrated chefs, who in 1998 opened her pivotal seafood focused restaurant, Contramar. Since then she has continued to expand, opening several more restaurants in Mexico, and eventually, in 2015, bringing her talents to the United States by opening San Francisco's Cala.

Published in 2019, My Mexico City Kitchen is a beautifully designed cookbook that captures the energy and colors of the city through Cámara's recipes. She invites the reader into her home kitchen, sharing the traditions and flavors unique to her family. Born to an Italian mother and a Mexican father, the blended cultures of her family felt right at home in the diversity of Mexico City. There are recipes for salsas, small plates called antojitos, and an array of gorgeous main dishes. Like her restaurants, the book features many fresh and inspired recipes for seafood, which inspired me to try her recipe for Almejas a la Mexicana (Mexican Style Clams), during our last trip to the coast. With Roma tomatoes, fresh jalapeños, and tequila for the steaming liquid, the resulting bowl of clams was a revelation.

Tucked between the wonderful recipes and delicious photographs, there is a little section titled "What would Diana do?" Here Cámara pays tribute to her friend and mentor, Diana Kennedy, whose iconic cookbooks were an indispensable resource to her own family over the years. From her collected wealth of knowledge to her down-to-earth honest critiques, Kennedy continues to be an amazing resource to younger chefs, like Cámara. Exploring time honored history while propelling the possibilities of the future, these two women are exciting chapters in the long timeline of Mexican food culture.