Customer Reviews

The Art of Mexican Cooking

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I have owned this book for several years. Some ingredients are hard to find but can be adapted. Everyone loves the chorizo rice recipe when I make it for work and my kids love the mexican rice recipe. My husband loves all of them. I enjoy the introductions about the recipe and where she found it. Out of the many cookbooks I have, this one is often used.

I have read all of Diana Kennedy's books. She is the best when it comes to true Mexican cooking. Her books capture the aromas, textures and tradition that are essential part of Mexican cooking. I love that she tells the background of the cook the recipe comes from and how she went about gettting the recipe. Many of these recipes have been passed down from generation to generation and have never even been written down. I am so thankful that the passion of this woman has allowed her to embark of the daunting task of gathering, translating and publishing these recipes because I think that without it many would die off.

I am an American woman who married a Mexican man from Michoacan. Diana Kennedy's books have been a lifesaver!!!! Cooking is such an integral part of the women's lives in my husband's family and they have been fortunate enough to grow up learning from their Mexican mothers these techniques. I on the other hand learned nothing about Mexican cooking techniques growing up and Diana Kennedy's books have filled in many of the gaps of knowledge I had about certain dishes. I have wowed my Mexican in-laws repeatedly with the authenticity of my dishes. Thank you, Diana!

I keep renewing this book from the library...can't wait until it's in stock so I can finally own it. I lived in Mexico for a year, fell in love with the food, and now have discovered that I never even ate as well as Diana Kennedy must cook. Now I'm obsessed and force my boyfriend to eat homemade Mexican every single night (not really a punishment.)

I have not made many of Kennedy's recipes but I did make "Pollo en Mole Verde" for my Mexican wife and Mexican father-in-law from Toluca, Mexico. They both couldn't believe how good my mole was and how authentic it was. They loved it. I take no credit as Diane Kennedy's recipe is so well writen. The dish is well worth the time and effort.

Well get yourself ready, this book has some outstanding recipes from Mexico, the country I am from, I would describe myself as a person that loves to enjoy food and occasionally cooks something, not every day but every now and then, after a review of the book recipes and trying a couple of them i know this recipes are true to their original tradition, while you might not be able to find all of the ingredients here in the US most of them are easy to find on any store, all of the recipes are in a pretty readable format and include detailed instructions, im pretty sure that a lot of people might be expecting tons of pictures, well sadly for those people this is not the case.
Other than that, the paper quality on this book is really good, and we found about this particular author from my sister in law and her husband, that happen to be Chef's, they had a great opinion on Diana Kennedy and we decided to give it a try, well if you can Do it!... you will not regret it, it will certainly deviate from the Tex Mex kind of food that most people are used to here in the states, but if you want something authentic, go for it!.
Probably my only complain is lack of colours and pictures that wont be of great use to me but will be lacking for most of the persons that are more graphical or would like to know how will the dish look like

Buen Provecho ... or Bon Appetit

For my money, no other Mexican cookbook (printed in English) that I have seen beats Diana Kennedy's 'The Art of Mexican Cooking'. I closely peruse any and all that I find, which have been many. Kennedy is precise in her explanations, leading the reader through very flavorful and deeply authentic dishes that have always proven to be a success for me. Consequently, my guests and I are always thrilled with "Mex Night" at our place. Be advised that the book has no pictures, but there are some useful sketches. I have not found the lack of finished dish photos in this book to be problematic.

One should be prepared to spend some time in the kitchen for authentic Mexican quisine. There's no escaping it. Good things from scratch often take time, moreso when the ingredients and time honored methods are so humble as these. Kennedy offers good short cuts, but still, time is generally essential in flavorful, sumptious meal preparation - 'nuf said. Since these dishes will not "throw together" in 15 minutes (beginning to end), I prep some parts one or two days before the meal. What's cool, is preparing "parts" each day to keep in the fridge which can be thrown together in different ways to create various dishes at any time.

I've cooked professionally for many years. That said, I previously (and ignorantly) dabbled in Mexican food only at home, using no recipes for some time. Results were nothing to tell about. Then I bought Mad Coyote Joe's 'Gringo Guide to Mexican Cooking', a fun, short, starter book in the style and it got me hooked on the real flavors. But Joe's book offers only few recipes and I was needing more. Then there are the Rick Bayless books (if you need pictures - nothing wrong with that) which, while offering fancier, more "nouveau Mex" dishes, lacks the soul and depth that I feel with Kennedy's works. I completely read Bayless' 'Authentic Mexican' & I like Bayless OK, but I found that I needed to have Kennedy's 'Art of Mexican Cooking.' It had more. It's the real deal and it has become absolutely indispensible, in my top 5 of a quite large collection of cookbooks.

I not sure when I got this book (1989 date) but it is a handsome book with very different authentic Mexican recipes from all over Mexico. I just rediscovered it in my collection on the bottom of a shelf. I have tried a few of the recipes but now discovered and looking through the impressive versatile and different recipes I will try more soon.The grilled chicken with oregano (9.2/10) was good. I have not tried the exotic and different types of green, black and red and other varied mole recipes but I need to . The albagonas (meatball soup) looks interesting as well several other chicken, beef recipes. The corn pudding is one I will try , the BBQ fish and chipotlesauce looks different.The black beef stew and beef with chili are ones too. Most of the recipes have ingredients that you can find at grociers or latin/ mexican store. Most are easy to medium in length and won't take that long but several may be more time intensive (there is no time to make listed on each recipe). Nice index, listing of chiles and other ingredients and even where to find some stores around the country.Some black and white pics but they are small. But it is the detailed and above and beyond recipes from the ordinary that will have your guests/ family smiling.