23 Dec 2010, Posted by admin in MEET, 0 Comments

Best Cookbooks of 2010 That Double As Cultural History Studies

For those who complain there is simply no time to do it all, that these days you must choose between cooking and reading (in that precious weeknight window of time between your last Tweet and lights out), this has been your lucky cookbook year.

So many cookbooks — good ones — were published this year that could double as reading material and menu fodder that I dubbed the Best Cookbooks of 2010 That Double As Cultural Studies a separate category in my continuing LA Weekly Best Cookbooks of 2010 series. Cook and learn. Now that sounds like a 2011 education reform slogan with sit-down dinner power. Turn the page for my favorite picks.

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04 Oct 2010, Posted by admin in MEET, 0 Comments

Diana Kennedy’s Oaxaca al Gusto: Cultural History Captured in a Cookbook

Diana Kennedy. Those two words mean esquite expert to some, proper tamale-making instructor to others, or as so many have dubbed her, simply the “Julia Child of Mexican cuisine.” That last one is the only title that the pedigreed author of the new cookbook Oaxaca al Gusto doesn’t deserve, as Kennedy is so much more than simply a reference point. For starters, that this book was published by an academic press, the University of Texas Press, is not incidental. In the Introduction, Kennedy says the seeds for that mole verde Oaxaqueño (green Oaxacan mole) began in 1994, when the governor asked her to catalog the state’s regional foods.

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