The Art of Mexican Cooking: Traditional Mexican Cooking for Aficionados: A Cookbook Hardcover – April 8, 2008

I could not tell this book was used. It was in perfect condition! And this is like a college textbook of Mexican cuisine. It’s a gorgeous book. It’s going to be an interesting read.

This is a great cookbook. I bought to replace the original I had but lost. If you want to prepare traditional Mexican food, this is the book for you.

For my money, no other Mexican cookbook (printed in English) that I have seen beats Diana Kennedy's 'The Art of Mexican Cooking'. I closely peruse any and all that I find, which have been many. Kennedy is precise in her explanations, leading the reader through very flavorful and deeply authentic dishes that have always proven to be a success for me. Consequently, my guests and I are always thrilled with "Mex Night" at our place.Be advised that there are no fabulous color finished dish photos here designed to charm and seduce you into buying the author's book (see Bayless for that), but there are some useful black & white photos of some of the preparation steps. I have not found the lack of finished dish photos in this book to be problematic. Also, this is literally a cookbook, more an instruction of Mexican cooking technique and many great core recipes that make up the heart of the style. The creativity in how the elements are utilized and presented are left up to you.One should be prepared to spend some time in the kitchen for authentic Mexican cuisine. There's no escaping it. Although Kennedy also offers short cuts, good things from scratch often take time, more so when the ingredients are so humble as these. Apart from some of the salsas, these dishes will not "throw together" in 15 minutes (beginning to end), so I prep some parts one or two days before the meal. If you're into Mexican food on a regular basis, what works for me is to prepare "parts" regularly to keep in the fridge which can be thrown together in different ways to create various dishes at any time.I've cooked professionally for many years. That said, I previously (and ignorantly) dabbled in Mexican (Tex-Mex, really) food only at home, using no recipes for some time. Results were nothing to tell about. Then I bought Mad Coyote Joe's 'Gringo Guide to Mexican Cooking', a fun, short, starter book in the style and it got me hooked on the real flavors. But Joe's book offers only few recipes and I was needing more. Then there are the Rick Bayless books (if you need pictures - nothing wrong with that) which, while offering fancier, more "nouveau Mex" dishes, lacks the soul and depth that I feel with Kennedy's works, only because I feel that one must have knowledge of the origins, the root, soul & necessity of the style before one can fully comprehend and appreciate the direction & concept of newer interpretations. I completely read Bayless' 'Authentic Mexican' & found it to be OK, but I found that I needed to have Kennedy's 'Art of Mexican Cooking.' It has more. It's the real deal and it has become absolutely indispensable for me, currently in my top 10 of collection of cookbooks.

This is a nice cookbook, although I feel it doesn't offer a wide range of options, maybe because I have my own recipes for everyday things and the others have almost unattainable ingredients. Also, seems like there are multiple recipes for the same thing, examples 3 versions of enchiladas, 3 of chilaquiles. Some recipes really need more of planning ahead to make something special, such as chicozapote fruit, shark ( yes shark) or squash blossoms. Things I don't see at the market. The other more " everyday" recipes such as pozole, I have my own recipes for those things already. After reading the book, I plan to make my own masa and I appreciate that equipment needed is described. ( although I could easily find instructions online) On a personal note, it slightly annoys me she calls tomatillos " green tomatoes" because they are not green tomatoes. Also, watch the chili amounts, she includes the seeds and absurd amounts in some recipes even if you like spicy, her amounts would make things inedible. I would say this book is more dedicated to the Culinary Anthropologist of Mexican cooking, not the everyday cook but maybe I will have a chance to find and use odd ingredients when I visit the in-laws in Mexico.** Update as of 2/2/2018**My previous review was a bit harsh but I left it in tact because of other feedback comments on my first review. The only thing I would add is the comment on tomatillos vs green tomatoes. I have asked several people from different parts of Mexico (Michoacan, Hidalgo, and Guanajuato) and no one could tell me the difference between what tomatillos and green tomatoes are. So the answer is still up in the air and Im thinking it is a regional thing... I just dont know which region, so I use tomatillos for everything.I wanted to update my review from 3 stars to 4 because despite the super spicy amounts of fresh chili called for ( I alter the amounts as side notes to each recipe), this book has some amazing authentic recipes for different molé and would buy the book for the recipes solely based on the molé and actually 90% of book use is for the molé section. Again, it is not an everyday recipe book and will be time consuming to prepare some of these things, but worth it if you really enjoy cooking.