Welcome
History
Through the recipes and history of Mexico found in my books, you will be able to obtain a true appreciation of the culture, and your sense of adventure will be awakened as you discover new and exciting culinary delights.
Mexican cuisine has all the requirements of a great cooking tradition: It is incredibly varied, it covers every known form of civilized food-making, it is steeped in tradition and history that go back hundreds and sometimes even thousands of years, and it makes use of almost all commonly known methods and ingredients (and some not so known ones!).
School of Cooking
Mexican cuisine is truly a school of cooking. It is not simply a set number of recipes, nor is it cooking around a few simple staples. It is on the contrary, the culinary expression of two of the world's great cultures married into a new nation: the Spanish Empire of the XVI century and the Meshica people, the most prosperous and advanced society in the Mid-America region before the arrival of the Europeans.
Both the Spanish and the Meshicas were significantly epicurean peoples. They enjoyed the pleasures of the table along with the social lives which were always centered around the protocols of meal times. Women were praised and valued for their cooking talents, friendships developed around good eating and drinking, and hospitality always being expressed with a generous table.
The Role of the Chile
The role of the pepper in Mexican cuisine is not to make food uncomfortably spicy but to lend it a very unique and indispensable flavour. Setting aside the fact that there are of course hundreds of dishes that are cooked with no chile at all, the fact does remain that chile is an integral part of Mexican cooking. The variety of chiles is enormous with more than a hundred different types, fresh or dried, green or red and sometimes yellow. These are used in so many imaginative ways that are truly unmatched by any other cuisine. The results can be magnificent. I invite you to explore your culinary senses and Buen Provecho!