First printed cookbooks and the invention of Mexican food.

Presented by: Rocio Carvajal Food anthropologist, culture & gastronomy educator.

Episode 79

Welcome to the season finale!

In this episode, I discuss how early printed cookbooks in Mexico were tools of cultural propaganda. Through a form of culinary patriotism, cookbooks built the gastronomic identity of a newly independent nation promoting the adoption of behaviours, tastes and manners of the whiter middle and upper classes.

In light of the aggressive exploitation of cultural expressions, contemporary discussions are contesting the dated and monolithic idea of “a Mexican gastronomy” that has erased and silenced the culinary identity and food practices of indigenous communities and ethnic minorities.

Related episodes:

Ep.56: Diana Kennedy: Documenting the memory of taste. https://tinyurl.com/y76uw2cl Ep. 66: 10 years of listed gastronomic heritage. https://tinyurl.com/y995z9za Ep. 72 Puebla: Mexico’s culinary jewel. https://tinyurl.com/yxotu4nx Hungry Books Ep.4: Delizia! The epic story of the Italians and their food by John Dickie https://tinyurl.com/y6sow6gu

Reading list:

• Ayora-Diaz, Steffan Igor (ed). (2019) Taste, Politics, and Identities in Mexican Food. https://amzn.to/3vmIKd8

• Bak-Geller Corona, Sarah. (2013). “Narrativas deleitosas de la nación. Los primeros libros de cocina en México” (1830-1890).” https://tinyurl.com/y38yjjhb 

• Bak-Geller, Sarah; Matta, Raúl y de Suremain, Charles-Édouard. (2019) Patrimonios alimentarios. Entre consensos y tensiones. https://tinyurl.com/y2vl8yon

• Banerjee-Dube, Ishita. (ed). 2016. Cooking Cultures Convergent Histories of Food and Feeling. https://amzn.to/3JOKgtx

• Gaytán Marie Sarita. (2014). “Drinking difference: Race, consumption, and alcohol prohibition in Mexico and the United States.” https://tinyurl.com/y3gwyrzd

• Moreno Botello, Ricardo. (2017). La Cocina en Puebla Tradición y Modernidad de un Patrimonio, Elogio de de La Cocinera Poblana. https://amzn.to/3jLmdRS