The Art of Mexican Cooking [Hardcover]

Diana Kennedy (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 1989

The Art of Mexican Cooking is  the ultimate guide to creating sensational flavors  of authentic Mexican food in your own kitchen.  Her classic, The Cuisines of  Mexico, established Diana Kennedy as the authority on  Mexican cooking, and now she brings thirty-two  years of living, traveling, and researching in  Mexico to a dazzling masterpiece of culinary  adventure. The Art of Mexican Cooking  is a brilliant exploration of one of the world's  truly great cuisine, including more than 200  extraordinary recipes, many for dishes previously  unknown north of the border, as well as more than 50  evocative illustrations and 150  photographs.

These dishes, favorites throughout Mexico,  range from sophisticated to pure and simple; all  share an amazing depth of taste. Aficionados will  go to great lengths to duplicate the authentic  dishes (and Kennedy tells them exactly how), but  here too there is a wealth of less complicated  recipes for the casual cook who longs for the  unmistakable flavors of soul-warming  cuisine.

Kennedy shares the secrets of true Mexican  flavor: balancing chile flavors with a little salt  and acid, for instance, or charring them to round  out their flavor; broiling tomatoes to bring out  their character, or using cumin for a light  accent. By using Kennedy's kitchen wisdom and advice  and carefully selecting tropical produce that is  now readily available in most American markets,  American cooks can at last serve truly authentic  Mexican food.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The intrepid Kennedy ( The Cuisines of Mexico ) here gives us an excellent new collection of traditional Mexican recipes and keenly observed culinary habits, crisscrossing her adopted country with the zeal of Sir Francis Drake. From a Yucatan fisherman she gathers regional secrets for preparing an octopus dish, and a recipe for steamed cactus is surrendered by a bus driver. Celebrating the increasing availability of Mexican ingredients in North America, and aiming "to perfect things," Kennedy has modified recipes from previous books for partisans of "honest, authentic food," urging us to process tamale dough from dried corn and grind it at home. Plucking a chicken or stuffing blood sausage may be too much for the faint-hearted, but accessible dishes are presented in abundance (e.g., Mexican masa ball soup). Kennedy's labor of love and scholarship belongs in the home library as a chronicle of culinary culture, regardless of whether or not cooks decide to turn their kitchens into cantinas. Photos not seen by PW.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Kennedy, a widely respected authority on Mexican cooking, devotes her latest book to the country's traditional popular foods. She presents unquestionably authentic recipes for these regional specialties, supplying background material and careful preparation notes for each; there are whole chapters devoted to corn and "the pig," as well as invaluable descriptions of chiles and unfamiliar ingredients. Inexperienced cooks may find some of the recipes daunting, but anyone with an interest in Mexican cuisine will be fascinated.
Copyright 1989 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 544 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (October 1, 1989)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553057065
• ISBN-13: 978-0553057065
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 7.6 x 2.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (18 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #370,176 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Diana Southwood Kennedy went to Mexico in 1957 to marry Paul P. Kennedy, the foreign correspondent for the New York Times. In 1969, at the suggestion of Craig Claiborne, she began teaching Mexican cooking classes and in 1972 published her first cookbook. She has been decorated with the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor bestowed on foreigners by the Mexican government. She lives much of the year in her ecological adobe house in Michoacan, Mexico, which also serves as a research center for Mexican cuisine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

53 of 55 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Get this while you can still find it used., November 4, 2001

By 

"f-n-c" (San Antonio del Mar, Mexico) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of Mexican Cooking (Hardcover)

This is not a book for beginning cooks. Most of the recipes are arduously complicated, but I've been using it for years with great results. I use Mexico the Beautiful more because it's a little more realistic in terms of how long one is willing to spend making a "simple" dish.

Mrs. Kennedy reminds me a lot of Rose Bernbaum of The Cake Bible in slavish dedication to detail.

Apart from the time required to make some of these dishes, they are indeed quite authentic. I've lived in Mexico for years and all my Mexican friends enjoy these recipes. If you're serious about graduating from Taco Bell sludge, get this book. It will make an expert out of you.

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars true Mexican food, February 7, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Art of Mexican Cooking (Hardcover)

As the title implies, this cookbook is for "Aficionados" of Mexican food. This is serious Mexican food (you won't find combo platters here). Every one of Diana Kennedy's recipes that I have tried have turned out wonderfully. If you want authentic Mexican, this is the only book you'll need.

36 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best chile relleno recipe in the World -- ambrosia!, April 29, 1999

By 

Evon Z. Vogt (San Francisco, California, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Art of Mexican Cooking (Hardcover)

My idea of heaven is a meal with savory black beans, fresh tortillas, a couple of chile rellenos in a tomato/garlic/cinnamon broth, finished off by a curdy sweet flan for dessert. Diana Kennedy steps you through the processes of each dish, and adds all the little touches to get it JUST right! Some will dispute my choices, I suppose, and prefer a turkey breast and thighs in a chile/ chocolate mole sauce, or maybe the traditional September treat of chiles en nogada (ground pork inside freshly roasted green chiles, covered with a white walnut sauce, sprinkled with persimmon seeds). She has all the recipes, they're all great.