What's the best Mexican cookbook!

January 28, 2011 10:08 AM

What is your favourite authentic Mexican food cookbook?

Quick and dirty! I am hopelessly addicted to Mexican food but I live in Toronto so the restaurants here are 1) not so great and 2) hilariously expensive.

HOWEVER, there is a fantastic source of Mexican food ingredients in Kensington Market, which is near where I live. SO.

What Mexican food book will allow me to become a master of that which I find so addictive! The more authentic the better, I wanna do it right!

Thanks guys

posted by geodave to food & drink (14 answers total)

Anything by Rick Bayless.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 10:22 AM on January 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

Anything by Diana Kennedy
posted by briank at 10:28 AM on January 28, 2011 [2 favorites]

To me, Rick Bayless' personality and show is annoying, but his books really are very good.

Problem is that making great Mexican food requires having access to great and fresh Mexican ingredients. You can't use supermarket brand tortillas and expect good results, for instance.
posted by jeff-o-matic at 10:50 AM on January 28, 2011

Ditto Bayless.
posted by fivesavagepalms at 11:00 AM on January 28, 2011

Diana Kennedy is the queen, especially this book.
posted by dearest at 11:00 AM on January 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Everyone is going to tell you either Diana Kennedy or Rick Bayless. Personally I find the Kennedy cookbooks to be slightly better, but the Bayless recipes to be slightly more accessible to north americans in terms of ingredients. Honestly you can't go wrong with either - the magnum opuses being the Kennedy "blue book" - "essential cuisines of Mexico" and for Bayless "Authentic Mexican"

I wish every cuisine could have just one cookbook of the breadth, depth and quality of either of those books.
posted by JPD at 11:04 AM on January 28, 2011 [6 favorites]

Go to the store and get both Essential Cuisines of Mexico by Diana Kennedy and Authentic Mexican by Rick Bayless. You will never need another Mexican cookbook again.

Unless you learn to read Spanish, in which case you should get as many of the CoNaCultA regional cookbooks as your shelves can hold (I think there are 50 of them).
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:26 AM on January 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

I agree that the Kennedy and Bayless books are really worthwhile, however this book by Elena Zelayeta has always been my go-to source. It's definitely not the encyclopedia that the Bayless and Kennedy ones are, so I'd recommend that you get it in addtion to one of the others, not instead-of. I really, really love that grotty little paperback. I pinched my mother's copy about half my life ago, when I was in my late teens, and it's been a steady favorite ever since.


No, mom, I'm, uh, not done with it yet.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 11:29 AM on January 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Ah the CoNaCultA books.There are 55 of them I believe. Who doesn't need a cook book on the mennonite cooking of chihuahua. For the truly obsessed.
posted by JPD at 11:41 AM on January 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

The more authentic the better

Have a friend go to the Azul y Oro restaurant on the UNAM campus in Mexico city and pick you up the "Diccionario Enciclopedico De Gastronomia Mexicana" by Ricardo Munoz Zurita. I'm not really a cook or foodie, but my friends say it's pretty thorough. The restaurant is really good also.
posted by cnanderson at 11:43 AM on January 28, 2011 [3 favorites]

"Diccionario Enciclopedico De Gastronomia Mexicana" by Ricardo Munoz Zurita. I'm not really a cook or foodie, but my friends say it's pretty thorough.

That's a great book, but it's not actually a cookbook--it's the Mexican cuisine equivalent of the Larousse Gastronomique, a very comprehensive reference source.
posted by Sidhedevil at 11:54 AM on January 28, 2011 [1 favorite]

Thanks a ton guys, this place never fails to amaze.
posted by geodave at 2:24 PM on January 28, 2011

I have books by both Bayless, and Kennedy, but my most used book is "The Border Cookbook". I usually check books out from the library, then purchase. Abe Books is a good source for bargain cookbooks.
posted by JABof72 at 12:12 AM on January 29, 2011

Abebooks got me through university, I have dumped more money into that site than I even wish to think about.
posted by geodave at 10:41 PM on January 29, 2011