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Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America
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Gran Cocina Latina unifies the vast culinary landscape of the Latin world, from Mexico to Argentina and all the Spanish-speaking countries of the Caribbean. In one volume it gives home cooks, armchair travelers, and curious chefs the first comprehensive collection of recipes from this region. An inquisitive historian and a successful restaurateur, Maricel E. Presilla has
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Hardcover, 912 pages
Published
October 1st 2012
by W. W. Norton Company
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Start your review of Gran Cocina Latina: The Food of Latin America
"...encyclopedic..." and "...intimidating..." pretty much sums up the What's Cooking group's thoughts on this cookbook. We had a fantastic turn out for our discussion without any duplication.
We tasted the following recipes...
- Quito's Potato and Cheese Soup
- Pupusas Salvadorenas with Encurtido
- Cuban Avocado, Watercress and Pineapple Salad
- Shrimp and Hearts of Palm Salad
- Puerto Rican Salt Cod Fritters
- Guatemalan Red Cabbage Relish
- Fried Green Plantains
- Polenta and Squash
- Cuban Shredded ...more
We tasted the following recipes...
- Quito's Potato and Cheese Soup
- Pupusas Salvadorenas with Encurtido
- Cuban Avocado, Watercress and Pineapple Salad
- Shrimp and Hearts of Palm Salad
- Puerto Rican Salt Cod Fritters
- Guatemalan Red Cabbage Relish
- Fried Green Plantains
- Polenta and Squash
- Cuban Shredded ...more
If Maricel Presilla doesn't win a James Beard Award for this book, then there is something wrong. Presilla doesn't offer up any ordinary cookbook. Nor does she remain biased to her own Cuban heritage when it comes to culinary education and her offering of recipes. Instead, she gives us a comprehensive and informative publication on all aspects of Latin American cooking, from Mexico to Chile, Bolivia to Puerto Rico. She includes recipes and methods from a old lady's kitchens in the mountains of
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As much a textbook as cookbook.
641.5972 P933g 2012
Very thorough and authentic presentation. I found myself appreciating even more dishes I have been served while traveling through Latin America. Highly recommend!
this is an incredibly thoughtful, deep, and personal account of a large variety of food that has come to be known as 'latin cuisine.' she's a great storyteller. in fact, the book could be about 200 pages if it were just recipes and didn't rely so much on the history of pumpkin, sugar, every kind of pepper, etc. it's interesting, but i wonder who the audience is. it's organized very well. whole chapters on pepper pots, squash, tamal, cebiche, etc. it's just so very thorough that you can't help
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It's not easy being a Latin Americanist and not liking cilantro, cooked peppers, or super spicy food. The book itself would be a great addition to an Intro to Latin American culture class, with food history and anecdotes about how different foods came to be a part of Latin American cooking, and what people are doing with them today. And despite the limitations mentioned above, I managed to flag at least 20 recipes, including for two favorites from places that I've spent extended periods of time
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This is an encyclopedia of Latin American cuisine and has become my coffee table book as well as my favorite cookbook. I am constantly picking it up, just to read another section or reread a section. I've learned so much about Latino food and ingredients and flavors. I've had it for more than 6 years and learn something new every time I pick it up, which is at least once a week.
I haven't tried a lot of recipes but all of the one's I've tried were quite good with flavor different from what I ...more
I haven't tried a lot of recipes but all of the one's I've tried were quite good with flavor different from what I ...more
I am buying this book. This book deserves a lifetime achievement award. This 912 page hefty tome is part cookbook, part encyclopedia, part weight lifting device. I think there was somewhere around 500 recipes (not a lot of pictures, but the ones there were gorgeous). There was comprehensive Latin American factual history as well as anecdotal history. I saw complaints in the reviews that there were too many hard to find unless you live near a Latin grocer ingredients in the recipes. Yes, there
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Culinary books really don't get more comprehensive than this - Mrs Presilla goes into huge detail about every aspect of latin cuisine, e.g. the history, the layers of taste, the slight regional and national differences. I'm in total awe of this work and I know I will read and re-read and cook a lot from this book. Makes me want to travel to Latin America and eat the continent from north to south. Simply amazing! Highly recommended to anyone that loves cooking, latin food, food history &
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A culinary encyclopedia of Latin American cooking...I made 3 recipes from this cookbook - coquitos, rice pudding and pumpkin and rice casserole. All were quite good, but I probably won't make them often. Coquitos are meant for Christmas Holiday festivities; rice pudding took 1.5 hours to make (!) and the pumpkin casserole was a big time commitment as well.
Ingredients for some recipes can only be found in Latin American markets. This book is definitely for adventurous cooks and eaters.
Ingredients for some recipes can only be found in Latin American markets. This book is definitely for adventurous cooks and eaters.
I had a some hesitation in rating this five stars, which I usually save for truly extraordinary books that I love. After some thought, I decided to give this five stars because it really fills a void in the cookbook market, namely a comprehensive OVERVIEW of Latin American cooking. So, the empanada and ajiaco recipes are not the same ones that I grew up with, but they are a great springboard for further exploration and tweaking.
Encyclopedic, comprehensive. Library checkout. Would like to own.
Incredibly comprehensive. I have already referred to this many times. This is a foodie's cookbook. I know my love of growing food makes me insanely interested in agricultural history. There are those who say this could be shorter without the in-depth on veggies. I have learned more geography and history from this than I did in any classroom!
I enjoyed the recipes and historical context of this book. But I am unable to get fresh coconuts (always stale), which really limits my ability to cook the recipes in the authentic way they are presented. Still, I was able to adapt and enjoy several recipes and would read another book by this author.
This is an encyclopedia of Latin American cooking, 150 pages of ingredients alone. I have two minor quibbles, one is the lack of nutritional information and the other is that a fair amount of the recipes are restaurant or holiday recipes. I'm lucky to have Latin restaurants near me so I can get an empanada whenever I want, otherwise I would consider buying this book.
This is definitely a foodies cookbook; where the difference between finely chopping and muddling the herbs matters. I haven't tried any of the hundreds of interesting recipes yet, but the food history and geography the author provides is very interesting and worth it alone.
Diverse view of Latin american cooking but many ingredients aren't available easily even in big U.S. markets. And, many of the flavors I don't find appealing. Good for those looking for traditional, Latin american cooking.
Huge book. Inspired my son to want to make some different Latin American food but the book mostly made me realize that I am really interested in cooking Mexican food and not every kind of Latin American food on the planet.
Hands down, one of the best cookbooks I have ever read. And I read it page by page, beginning to end. I cannot recommend this highly enough.
Got it from the library and thought I should have it, but decided to wait. And Saturday, it was sent tome as a gift by a great pal.
The flan recipes are FANTASTIC!!
Made the fourth recipe in this massive book, Guatemalan Adobo, DELICIOUS!
One of my all-time favourite cookbooks. A must.
I attended the Beard on Books lecture featuring author, Maricel Presilla. You can read later on my Examiner.com Food & Drink Column.
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