Latin American cuisine is complex and varied, covering a vast region and, like all great cuisines, influenced by invasions, migrations, immigration and ancient traditions. It's impossible to pick just one cookbook to cover everything. Even so, there must be a few that you find yourself going to again and again. What are your favorite Latin American cookbooks?
Mexico! Cuba! Argentina! Brazil! El Savador! Chile! Latin America produces some of the world's most flavorful, vibrant and popular foods. There's so much to explore and experiment with in the Latin American culinary repertoire, so it's time for us to go beyond guacamole and chips and discover these wonderful cuisines. (Not that we should forgo guacamole and chips all together. That would be just too sad.)
These days it's possible to find Latin American cookbooks for vegetarians and vegans, as well as volumes dedicated to low-fat, low carb and diabetic cooking. And while we can thank people like Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless for their contributions to bringing these flavors to non-Latin American tables, it's also nice to see people native to the many countries of Latin American penning their own cookbooks. Francis Mallman's Seven Fires: Grilling the Argentine Way would have to be one of my favorites.
What Latin American cookbooks have you found to be the most inspirational and authentic?
Related: Three Latin American Kitchens
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I like Rick Bayless' Mexican Kitchen. He's responsible for me keeping a little container of lard in my fridge.
Williams Sonoma does a decent job with their Latin cookbook. The recipes are easy and fresh, and fairly authentic. I also like this one for Cuban.
This cookbook is technically southwest cuisine but it is my go-to cookbook for so many Latin American-flavored recipes. Foods of the Sun by Anne Lindsay Greer. I got it as a wedding gift and we are about to celebrate our 24th anniversary so you can see how long I've had it. it is stained and dog earred and much loved.
The Puerto Rican Cookery is a staple in most Puerto Rican households (including mine). Growing up, we always referenced this cookbook while preparing for large family events. In fact, on my 21st birthday, I received my own copy from my mother, complete with a sentimental inscription along the book's inner cover. It is not only a definitive reference tool for Cocina Criolla (latin caribbean food) but an excellent example of how Puerto Rican cuisine is more than just Pernil and Coquito.
Any book by Diana Kennedy... her latest "Oaxaca al Gusto" is beautiful, though it's mostly what I call "food porn", cookbooks that I can't actually cook from because the ingredients or gadgets are impossible (or expensive) to get or the techniques are way beyond me...