Mexican cookbooks

¡Viva La Revolución!

Fiona Dunlop, Octopus, £20

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Following ‘New Tapas’ and ‘Medina Kitchen’, Fiona Dunlop’s third cookbook makes for a Mexico that’s a world away from packet taco mixes and pub servings of microwaved nachos.

Divided into six of the central or southern states – the capital México DF, south central Puebla, west coastal Michoacán, sourthern Oaxaca and Veracruz, and the far easterly Yucatán – it’s evident that Dunlop travelled extensively while researching this book.

Dunlop presents two local chefs for each area, such as DF’s Martha Ortiz and Oaxacan housewife Abigail Mendoza, thereby offering first-hand insights into the traditions and realities of modern Mexican cuisine.

Recipes? Plenty of those, ranging from street food through to first class restaurant fare. Caldo de mariscos (spicy seafood broth) made a soup every bit as good as we’d enjoyed recently in Mexico City, while the classier recipes such as fillets of fish with tomato marmalade are perfect for dinner party hosts to show off.

Aptly for such a cookbook, it’s richly coloured with gorgeous photography and the short list of UK food suppliers and glossary is helpful. An impressive and highly useful book that could only be improved if it came with a plane ticket to Mexico.

Simone Baird

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