Customer Reviews

Las Fiestas de Frida y Diego: Recuerdos y Recetas (Spanish Edition)

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

 

 

Do get this book if you are a big Frida Kahlo fan. Her step-daughter's memories are somewhat interesting; it's a good read that sits with dignity on either a bedroom night stand or the coffee table or the cookbook shelf.

Don't get this book if you want to start to learn Mexican cooking. It's not a beginner's cookbook!

Do get this book if you have kitchen help and/or if you have some experience with Mexican ingredients (and access to them) and Mexican recipes/dishes. In Asia I have succeeded in making the smothered pork sandwiches (associated with a baptism Frida attended) and some of the other simpler recipes.

If you like the format of Like Water For Chocolate, you'll like this special book. Nicely illustrated with photos of all the food in beautifully styled presentation.

Bonus for art lovers: the cover and some of the illustrations are re-creations of paintings by Frida... tour de force still-life photography!

Artfull, evocative, and nostalgic are three adjectives that can give a sense of what the reader will find in this book. Renowned photographer Ignacio Urquiza, and Marie-Pierre Cole teamed again to bring us "Las Fiestas de Frida y Diego". In it, through the superb photography of Ignacio Urquiza, you will be carried to the spaces that were central in the life of the artists. Soon after you start going through the pages of the book, you forget about the carefully explained recipies, and shift your attention to the profuse anecdotes collected by Marie-Pierre, directly from Diego's daughter, Guadalupe Rivera, and the sublime photography of Urquiza.

Amongst all mexican cooking books i bought over time, this is THE favorite one and i often return to it in pursue of inspiration. Besides the nice anectodes about Frida and Diego's life, i find this book invaluable because the recipes are very accurate and the photos match the real results that you get if you follow the instructions. Even if it is not a beginner's book, the recipes are well explained. You can even check out if i am cheating or not, just go to tlazolteotl.blogspot.com and have a look at the mexican recipes, most of them come from this very book, i.e. colchones de naranja, pipián blanco, pipián verde, flan de piñones, puntas de filete al albañil and others!
If you like traditional mexican food there is no doubt, this book is a must-have.

It is a treat to look into the life of Frida. You will want to take a trip to Mexico to savor the treats or follow the recipes to understand why these dishes stand out. Try the dishes before the movie about Frida is released.