The Cuisines of Mexico

by Diana Kennedy

Original publisher: HarperCollins

Date of publication: 1972

ISBN: 0060915617

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Recommended by

Michelle Peters-Jones

Food writer

You can obviously see a theme here in my picks, yes? What can I say? I love ethnic cuisines, of all kinds and when it comes to Mexican food, Diana Kennedy is the bees knees. This book is actually a combination of three of her bestselling books on Mexican cuisine (real Mexican, not Tex Mex) and covers everything you want to know and learn about the culture and food of Mexico. I struggled a bit between picking Diana Kennedy or Rick Bayless, but in the end Kennedy's painstaking research and her quest for real Mexican food won out.

Tom Parker Bowles

Restaurant Critic, Food Writer and Broadcaster

There's a delicious irony in the fact that it took a British lady to help preserve many of the great regional recipes of Mexico, but it's true. Kennedy is a true hero, tramping the dusty roads and byways of Mexico to gather the recipes of the real country, those held sacred in the home kitchens across the land. They were in genune danger of dying out. She writes well, with authority and precision, and her recipes are brilliant. This tome combines her first three book and is the essential tome on real Mexican cookery.

John Birdsall

Food Writer

In the 1970s, this book persuaded skeptical middle-class white Americans that Mexico has one of the world's great food cultures. It's a testament to Kennedy's immersion in her subject.

Kay Plunkett-Hogge

Food writer

Mexico and its food have fascinated me from the moment I first went there when I was 12. This book is definitive. If you want to cook Mexican, accept no substitutes.

Aliza Green

Chef and author

I spent several summers in Mexico as a young teen, fell in love with the food and later turned to Kennedy's influential book to learn to cook it for myself.