Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking from the Heart of Mexico

Every year I take on a new cookbook and this was 2018's project. Bayless is a clear writer and the recipes here give an excellent overview of Mexican flavors but once you get a few of the techniques down there isn't much left. It was pretty easy to cook through this tome on weekdays. Recommended! I'll never look down on boiling meat again.

Every year I take on a new cookbook and this was 2018's project. Bayless is a clear writer and the recipes here give an excellent overview of Mexican flavors but once you get a few of the techniques down there isn't much left. It was pretty easy to cook through this tome on weekdays. Recommended! I'll never look down on boiling meat again.

My go-to book for basic Mexican for over ten years. I am fortunate enough to live two miles from a Mexican market, so I can get most of the chiles and other ingredients used in the recipes here. I guess Bayless is pretty famous now, what with a pretty famous customer or two, but believe the hype, this guy knows his stuff.

The recipes are very detailed and include many notes on techniques and ingredients. The section on timing and advance preparation is extremely helpful for planning my cooking strategy; I wish every cookbook included such thoughtful notes. I also appreciate the many traditional and contemporary variations on each recipe provided, which enable the cook to try the dish multiple ways or easily substitute ingredients.

Rave recipe: Chunky Guacamole--this is the only guacamole recipe I make, and it is always a huge hit.

Very interesting read, haven't gotten a chance to try to many of the recipes yet. Does make one hungry though to read and there's a lot of interesting dishes that one doesn't normally see here in the States. Very dense as far as information and local practices, something I love. One of my favorite cookbooks I've read so far.

Serves as a nice counterpoint to the Mexican Everyday book as it has some of the basic sauces and the like that for speed and convenience he suggests just buying.

I read the first edition, I'm guessing at some point it's likely that I'll get the 20th anniversary version and it'll be interesting to see what differences there are. (note, bought this book since I originally reviewed it in Living Social. haven't had a show more chance to compare yet. Does have a nice photospread in the center in the Anniversary edition. Can't remember if that was in the original)

Only critical thing I suppose I could say is that I could see people being overwhelmed and wanting better illustrations. Some sections also seem comparatively small. show less

This is a very comprehensive cookbook, and I've enjoyed several of the things we've made. A little overwhelming just in terms of number of recipes.

Always love Bayless' cookbooks, and a trip to Frontera Grill is part of most of my Chicago trips. Most of the recipes include easy modification for vegetarians. Always much fresh flavor!