''The Cuisines of Mexico'' is the first of
Diana Kennedy
Diana Kennedy MBE (; 3 March 1923 – 24 July 2022) was a British food writer. A primary English-language authority on Mexican cuisine, Kennedy was known for her nine books on the subject, including '' The Cuisines of Mexico'', which changed ...
's nine cookbooks, credited with introducing Americans to
Mexican food
Mexican cuisine consists of the cooking cuisines and traditions of the modern country of Mexico. Its earliest roots lie in Mesoamerican cuisine. Its ingredients and methods begin with the first agricultural communities such as the Olmec and M ...
beyond
Tex-Mex
Tex-Mex cuisine (from the words ''Texan'' and ''Mexican'') is an American cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of the ''Tejano'' people of Texas. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern United ...
.
Background to the book
The book was the result of Kennedy’s love of Mexican food, which she discovered when she moved to
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital city, capital and primate city, largest city of Mexico, and the List of North American cities by population, most populous city in North Amer ...
to live with her husband, ''New York Times'' reporter Paul P. Kennedy, in 1957. The couple moved to New York City by the end of 1965, with Paul dying in 1967 of cancer.
To make a living, Kennedy began teaching Mexican cooking classes in her Upper West Side apartment, with the cuisine quite novel at the time.
[ Although ''New York Times'' food writer ]Craig Claiborne
Craig Claiborne (September 4, 1920 January 22, 2000) was an American restaurant critic, food journalist and book author. A long-time food editor and restaurant critic for ''The New York Times'', he was also the author of numerous cookbooks and ...
once mentioned to her that she should write a Mexican cookbook and encouraged her cooking classes. The book began to come together after then-poetry editor at Harper and Row
Harper is an American publishing house, the flagship imprint of global publisher HarperCollins based in New York City.
History
J. & J. Harper (1817–1833)
James Harper and his brother John, printers by training, started their book publishin ...
Fran McCullough took one of her classes and offered to be her editor. The two would eventually work on Kennedy’s first five cookbooks.[ Although Kennedy had been collecting recipes since her time in Mexico City, she decided to go to Mexico to do further research.][ This research, she believed, was what separated her from other cookbook writers in that she has took the time and effort to explore Mexico and do field research on how the cuisine varies.]
Impact
It began to change Americans' understanding of Mexican food, expanding it beyond Tex-Mex
Tex-Mex cuisine (from the words ''Texan'' and ''Mexican'') is an American cuisine that derives from the culinary creations of the ''Tejano'' people of Texas. It has spread from border states such as Texas and others in the Southwestern United ...
into the various regional cuisines and dishes,[ and is the basis of establishing authentic Mexican food in the United States.][ The contents of this book along with two that followed, ''The Tortilla Book'' and ''Mexican Regional Cooking'', were compiled in 2000 into ''The Essential Cuisines of Mexico''. However, this compilation took out many of the original book's stories and photographs.]
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cuisines of Mexico, The
Cookbooks
Mexican cuisine