Diana Kennedy

Early Years

Cookbook author, culinary historian, and cooking teacher Diana Kennedy is called the high priestess and ultimate authority on Mexican cooking. Of her many contributions to the international culinary world, one of her greatest has been the elevation of Mexican cuisine.

It has also been said that Diana Kennedy has done for Mexican food what Julia Child did for French food. Julia, an American, went to France and found her passion for food. Diana, born in England, found her passion when she went to Mexico in 1957 to marry Paul Kennedy, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. Moving to New York when Paul became ill, Diana was encouraged by Times food editor and restaurant critic Craig Claiborne to teach Mexican cooking classes, which she began doing in 1959.

Living primarily in Michoacan, Mexico, in an ecological adobe house that also serves as a research center for Mexican cuisine, Diana Kennedy has spent the last 47 years traveling throughout her adopted country. She has gone from region to region, meeting the farmers, the home cooks, and the restaurant chefs, finding the answers to all the questions about what is unique to the cuisines of each region. It has been her mission to accumulate and then communicate the regional differences that can distinguish from which area a specific dish originates. For example, tortillas differ regionally with the type of corn, the methods for preparing the masa, and the type of tortilla made.

Current Projects

Diana Kennedy feels that it is crucial to learn the foundations of Mexican cuisine, but once you know what is authentic, it is perfectly okay to venture from there with your own interpretations. She is a realist who acknowledges that today’s cooks frequently use tradition as a guide to improvise based on convenience and creativity. It’s also her belief that you can only bend the rules after you know what they are. Her philosophy of authenticity-first has been the common thread throughout her career, and it is evident in every one of her eight books, including her latest From My Mexican Kitchen: Techniques and Ingredients (Clarkson Potter, 2003). This is like the rules-of-the-road of Mexican cooking, providing a guide to better understanding the primary ingredients used in Mexican cuisine and how best to prepare them.

Recognition

Winner of the International Association of Culinary Professionals’ Lifetime Achievement Award, Diana Kennedy may live in Mexico but her following and accomplishments are international. She has been decorated with the Order of the Aztec Eagle, the highest honor bestowed on foreigners by the Mexican government, truly a special honor from her beloved Mexico. A duly deserved honor, because it is in large part due to Diana Kennedy’s efforts that authentic Mexican food now holds a very respectable place among the world’s great cuisines.

Other books by Diana Kennedy:

• Recipes From the Regional Cooks of Mexico (Harper Collins, 1978)
• The Cuisines of Mexico (Perennial Currents, revised 1989)
• The Art of Mexican Cooking (Bantam, 1989)
• Mexican Regional Cooking (Harper Collins 1990)
• The Tortilla Book (Perennial revised 1991)
• My Mexico: A Culinary Odyssey with More Than 300 Recipes (Clarkson Potter 1998)
• The Essential Cuisines of Mexico: Revised and updated throughout, with more than 30 new recipes (Clarkson Potter 2000)