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Oaxaca: Home Cooking from the Heart of Mexico
A colorful celebration of Oaxacan cuisine from the landmark Oaxacan restaurant in Los Angeles
Oaxaca is the culinary heart of Mexico, and since opening its doors in 1994, Guelaguetza has been the center of life for the Oaxacan community in Los Angeles. Founded by the Lopez family, Guelaguetza has been offering traditional Oaxacan food for 25 years. The first true introduction to Oaxacan cuisine by a native family, each dish articulates their story, from Oaxaca to the streets of Los Angeles and beyond. Showcasing the “soul food” of Mexico, Oaxaca offers 140 authentic, yet accessible recipes using some of the purest pre-Hispanic and indigenous ingredients available. From their signature pink horchata to the formula for the Lopez’s award-winning mole negro, Oaxaca demystifies this essential cuisine.
Oaxaca is the culinary heart of Mexico, and since opening its doors in 1994, Guelaguetza has been the center of life for the Oaxacan community in Los Angeles. Founded by the Lopez family, Guelaguetza has been offering traditional Oaxacan food for 25 years. The first true introduction to Oaxacan cuisine by a native family, each dish articulates their story, from Oaxaca to the streets of Los Angeles and beyond. Showcasing the “soul food” of Mexico, Oaxaca offers 140 authentic, yet accessible recipes using some of the purest pre-Hispanic and indigenous ingredients available. From their signature pink horchata to the formula for the Lopez’s award-winning mole negro, Oaxaca demystifies this essential cuisine.
320 pages, Hardcover
Published October 22, 2019
222 people are currently reading
737 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 33 reviews
December 7, 2019
Living in Texas, we have many Mexican restaurants and many of us (ok ME!) could live on chips, salsa, guacamole, and tacos. You will hear that there are many types of Mexican food and this is very true and I have seen a variety here in town and across the country. If you want to learn more about the history of Mexican food, I found this website that shares more details of the history and the influence of many cultures on the dishes, the cooking sources, and even little known facts regarding tamales, tomatillos, and chilis.
When I opened this cookbook I was greeted with colorful photographs of food and the family that created Guelaguetza. There is also an in depth history of how the restaurant came into existence and the challenges the family faced over the years during expansion to additional locations. This history is just as engaging as the recipes.
As I continued through the book, the author shares techniques and information about various ingredients. I know I mentioned the photographs but I cannot put into words how amazing these photos are to gaze upon. The richness and the sense of family and food are unimaginable. You will just have to pick up a copy of this book for yourself to understand what I am talking about.
Each chapter focuses on a specific area of Oaxaca food - from staples to beverages, to main courses, to salsas, and even to desserts. Each recipe starts with a history of the dish and there is a rich photograph that represents the finished dish. There is even a step by step illustration that shows how to make tamales.
I like to try a recipe from each cookbook I receive from Abrams as part of their Dinner Party. I lamented over what recipe would be the winner and since I had a dinner party coming up a dessert might work nicely especially since the food theme was Mexican! What caught my eye was the Chocoflan recipe. It seems easy enough and wouldn't be too sweet. The ingredients came together easily enough but where I ran into problems was with the cooking time. The recipe said to cook for 35 minutes in a water bath at 300°. However, when I opened the oven it was nowhere cooked. I think I ended up cooking this for about an hour. Plus my flan layer wasn't thick enough so the cake batter mixed in with the flan batter. Now, somehow it all still worked out and while the flan had some chocolate throughout, the cake layer actually rose to the top. I couldn't believe it! I was concerned that cooking it for that length of time would affect the consistency and flavor, but it didn't. Now my caramel layer didn't work but I think that comes with practice and it is easy enough to make more and just drizzle over the top.
When I opened this cookbook I was greeted with colorful photographs of food and the family that created Guelaguetza. There is also an in depth history of how the restaurant came into existence and the challenges the family faced over the years during expansion to additional locations. This history is just as engaging as the recipes.
As I continued through the book, the author shares techniques and information about various ingredients. I know I mentioned the photographs but I cannot put into words how amazing these photos are to gaze upon. The richness and the sense of family and food are unimaginable. You will just have to pick up a copy of this book for yourself to understand what I am talking about.
Each chapter focuses on a specific area of Oaxaca food - from staples to beverages, to main courses, to salsas, and even to desserts. Each recipe starts with a history of the dish and there is a rich photograph that represents the finished dish. There is even a step by step illustration that shows how to make tamales.
I like to try a recipe from each cookbook I receive from Abrams as part of their Dinner Party. I lamented over what recipe would be the winner and since I had a dinner party coming up a dessert might work nicely especially since the food theme was Mexican! What caught my eye was the Chocoflan recipe. It seems easy enough and wouldn't be too sweet. The ingredients came together easily enough but where I ran into problems was with the cooking time. The recipe said to cook for 35 minutes in a water bath at 300°. However, when I opened the oven it was nowhere cooked. I think I ended up cooking this for about an hour. Plus my flan layer wasn't thick enough so the cake batter mixed in with the flan batter. Now, somehow it all still worked out and while the flan had some chocolate throughout, the cake layer actually rose to the top. I couldn't believe it! I was concerned that cooking it for that length of time would affect the consistency and flavor, but it didn't. Now my caramel layer didn't work but I think that comes with practice and it is easy enough to make more and just drizzle over the top.
September 27, 2020
Such a beautiful book. Probably another that one would need to own to really work through it. Lots of the recipes are nested (so, to cook one dish, you need to have prepared a couple of other recipes in the book first). And many of them require a pretty enormous Mexican pantry. The Mole Negro requires 26 ingredients. And that Mole is just one component of many of the dishes in this book.
This book seems meant for people who are willing to invest a lot of time into learning Oaxacan foodways. It's not meant for pulling out one recipe and treating it as a discrete object. It's really about relationship between the dishes, how they complement and build on each other to constitute a whole way of eating for her family and her people.
This book seems meant for people who are willing to invest a lot of time into learning Oaxacan foodways. It's not meant for pulling out one recipe and treating it as a discrete object. It's really about relationship between the dishes, how they complement and build on each other to constitute a whole way of eating for her family and her people.
June 4, 2021
Reading these recipes made me viciously homesick for my life in Mexico. I started involuntarily salivating reading the recipe for Dulce de Calabaza; and had some viceral sense memories reading recipes for enmoladas or various salsas.
I don't love cookbooks that are full of non-food photos; but this book is also an introduction to a place (if you haven't been to Oaxaca, the photos are lovely and true to my experience of the place).
That said, there wasn't much in terms of technique, ingredients, or recipes that I learned from the book.
I don't love cookbooks that are full of non-food photos; but this book is also an introduction to a place (if you haven't been to Oaxaca, the photos are lovely and true to my experience of the place).
That said, there wasn't much in terms of technique, ingredients, or recipes that I learned from the book.
May 5, 2021
Pretty LA-plastic minivan majority pictures. Okay okay okay the moles are incredible, but the rest of the recipes are fucking filler. I don’t need a whole page illustrating how to insert a hot tortilla/egg/chicharron into the sauce outlined 100-pages down the line. Also some of the recipes have points where they lose the plot and an ingredient isn’t processed. Not very accessible because of all the hard-to-find chilies and fresh epazote and Hoya santo. I live within 100 miles of the Mexican border and have a culinary degree, but still will never be able to cook some of these recipes due to lack of practicality. If this was posta be used for cultural immersion she could have fit a lot more on Oaxacan food traditions in here.
June 26, 2020
The recipes in here are great, I just have read cookbooks put together better.
The adobo chicken completely blew my family's mind. I can't wait to make the moles, salsas, and the desserts.
The adobo chicken completely blew my family's mind. I can't wait to make the moles, salsas, and the desserts.
September 26, 2021
Gorgeous book with easy to follow, beautiful recipes. Inviting photos of recipes and Oaxacan life. Plenty of vegetarian and vegan options.
July 6, 2023
I feel compelled to write this review because this is listed as a bestseller on Amazon, where it is decorated with hundreds of 5-star ratings. I assume most of those ratings were given by people who haven't actually tried cooking from it.
This book has two great qualities that I enjoy and look for in cookbooks:
1. Beautiful photography, with pictures that accompany each recipe.
2. A compelling immigration story at the beginning and great little anecdotes that go along with every recipe. If you enjoy memoirs and/or history & haven't tried reading cookbooks, you're missing out. It's like interactive non-fiction.
These qualities make the book enjoyable to flip through, but cooking from it was another matter. The recipes are horribly written: they're vague, they're missing steps--they're so bad that I question how this book even made it to publication. I doubt any of the recipes were ever tested. The editor, if there even was one, must have been black-out drunk during the entire publication process. Even the ingredient lists are lacking (for example, when the author mentions beans are necessary, she never specifies dried beans, she just says "beans." You have to read the actual recipe to figure that she means dried.)
I checked this book out from the library because of the chocoflan recipe. The picture from the book looked SO GOOD, and I just couldn't resist. I have never been so excited to bake something...and then been so utterly disappointed. The directions didn't make sense, the cook time was completely off (mine didn't even cook at all). There was no saving it, so I had to throw it all away. Now, I'm an experienced enough baker that I really should have known just by reading the recipe that something was wrong. Even as I was mixing together the ingredients I kept thinking "this can't be right...this can't be it, it makes no sense" (whenever this happened I would re-check the recipe and find I was doing exactly what it told me). I also should have checked the 2/3 star ratings, which were few in number, but which were some of the only ones where people actually wrote about their experiences cooking with this book. All of them listed problems with the recipes, especially the chocoflan (one even said to not even attempt it). So that's all on me. But then, in my defense, WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU PUBLISH A RECIPE THAT CAN'T BE COOKED FROM? What is the point of your damn cookbook!?????
This cookbook is based off of a restaurant in LA, and I would bet a lot of money that all the photographs here were taken at the restaurant itself, and that the featured food was not actually cooked by the author of the recipes. I don't doubt that the LA restaurant is amazing, but this cookbook is advertised as Oaxacan cooking you can do at home. Restaurant cooking and home cooking are two entirely different things, and there is definitely an art to recipe-writing, an art in which the author clearly has no talent. This book reads like she took a handful of the restaurant's most popular dishes, wrote slap-dash "home" versions of the recipes (without knowing what she was doing), and then handed it all in without testing or editing. Which ultimately makes this a useless book destined for the coffee table. And that's so sad, because the food here looked so amazing.
I would be less grouchy about all of this if we weren't living in a day and age where it seems like a single grain of rice costs the blood of your firstborn. I think I dropped almost $10-15 worth of groceries on that damn flan. Thank god I didn't drop $25 on the cookbook itself (thank you libraries).
But what I am most furious about is...1) My homemade caramel for the flan came out PERFECT. PERFECT, I TELL YOU. And then I had to throw it down the sink. And 2) I didn't get to eat that beautifully photographed chocoflan :'( Now I'm going to have to fly all the way down to goddamn LA to sample it.
Final note: I really, really wish people would not rate cookbooks until they've attempted cooking from them. So many of those five star reviews were people just saying "wow this looks amazing...can't wait to cook from it!" I bet you they never did.
This book has two great qualities that I enjoy and look for in cookbooks:
1. Beautiful photography, with pictures that accompany each recipe.
2. A compelling immigration story at the beginning and great little anecdotes that go along with every recipe. If you enjoy memoirs and/or history & haven't tried reading cookbooks, you're missing out. It's like interactive non-fiction.
These qualities make the book enjoyable to flip through, but cooking from it was another matter. The recipes are horribly written: they're vague, they're missing steps--they're so bad that I question how this book even made it to publication. I doubt any of the recipes were ever tested. The editor, if there even was one, must have been black-out drunk during the entire publication process. Even the ingredient lists are lacking (for example, when the author mentions beans are necessary, she never specifies dried beans, she just says "beans." You have to read the actual recipe to figure that she means dried.)
I checked this book out from the library because of the chocoflan recipe. The picture from the book looked SO GOOD, and I just couldn't resist. I have never been so excited to bake something...and then been so utterly disappointed. The directions didn't make sense, the cook time was completely off (mine didn't even cook at all). There was no saving it, so I had to throw it all away. Now, I'm an experienced enough baker that I really should have known just by reading the recipe that something was wrong. Even as I was mixing together the ingredients I kept thinking "this can't be right...this can't be it, it makes no sense" (whenever this happened I would re-check the recipe and find I was doing exactly what it told me). I also should have checked the 2/3 star ratings, which were few in number, but which were some of the only ones where people actually wrote about their experiences cooking with this book. All of them listed problems with the recipes, especially the chocoflan (one even said to not even attempt it). So that's all on me. But then, in my defense, WHY THE HELL WOULD YOU PUBLISH A RECIPE THAT CAN'T BE COOKED FROM? What is the point of your damn cookbook!?????
This cookbook is based off of a restaurant in LA, and I would bet a lot of money that all the photographs here were taken at the restaurant itself, and that the featured food was not actually cooked by the author of the recipes. I don't doubt that the LA restaurant is amazing, but this cookbook is advertised as Oaxacan cooking you can do at home. Restaurant cooking and home cooking are two entirely different things, and there is definitely an art to recipe-writing, an art in which the author clearly has no talent. This book reads like she took a handful of the restaurant's most popular dishes, wrote slap-dash "home" versions of the recipes (without knowing what she was doing), and then handed it all in without testing or editing. Which ultimately makes this a useless book destined for the coffee table. And that's so sad, because the food here looked so amazing.
I would be less grouchy about all of this if we weren't living in a day and age where it seems like a single grain of rice costs the blood of your firstborn. I think I dropped almost $10-15 worth of groceries on that damn flan. Thank god I didn't drop $25 on the cookbook itself (thank you libraries).
But what I am most furious about is...1) My homemade caramel for the flan came out PERFECT. PERFECT, I TELL YOU. And then I had to throw it down the sink. And 2) I didn't get to eat that beautifully photographed chocoflan :'( Now I'm going to have to fly all the way down to goddamn LA to sample it.
Final note: I really, really wish people would not rate cookbooks until they've attempted cooking from them. So many of those five star reviews were people just saying "wow this looks amazing...can't wait to cook from it!" I bet you they never did.
April 4, 2025
Oaxaca has earned a permanent spot on my cookbook shelf, becoming a kitchen staple for its deep dive into Oaxacan culinary traditions and its vibrant celebration of flavor. It's a resource I turn to for inspiration, for understanding the nuances of Oaxacan cuisine, and for dreaming up elaborate meals…that I then sometimes regret making. Here's the thing: the food is undeniably good. It's packed with flavor, complex and satisfying, a true testament to the rich culinary heritage of Oaxaca. But… (and this is a big "but")… achieving that deliciousness often requires a Herculean effort. Many of the dishes rely on a symphony of components – sauces, salsas, toppings, sometimes multiple dishes working in concert – each demanding its own prep time and attention.
The result is a culinary marathon, not a sprint. And while crossing the finish line with a plate of beautifully layered tlayudas or richly flavored mole is incredibly rewarding, the journey can be exhausting. There were times when I found myself questioning if I was truly enjoying the dish or if I was just so relieved to finally be eating something after hours in the kitchen that I was simply craving sustenance. The flavors are there, no doubt about it. But the sheer amount of work involved sometimes overshadows the pleasure of the meal.
I am happy to say that it's a cookbook that promises a taste of Oaxaca, and it delivers on that promise, but be prepared to invest some serious time and energy to truly savor it. It's a resource for special occasions, culinary adventures, and those days when you have absolutely nothing else to do but immerse yourself in the beautiful (and sometimes exhausting) world of Oaxacan cooking. For those reasons I am considering this book to be a kitchen staple.
Do the cookbook's dishes justify the time, effort, and cost involved?
While some of the recipes in Oaxaca require a time investment and a bit of effort, the resulting dishes are absolutely worth it, particularly when considering the cost-effectiveness of the ingredients. It's true that some dishes involve multiple components – salsas, moles, toppings – which can add to the prep time. But the core ingredients themselves are often surprisingly affordable. Many of the foundational flavors come from readily available and budget-friendly staples like dried chiles, onions, garlic, and spices. Yes, sourcing some of the more specialized ingredients might require a trip to a Latin American market, but even these are often reasonably priced, especially when purchased in bulk. And while fresh produce is essential to Oaxacan cooking, a lot of what is called for is dried which can keep costs down.
The beauty of Oaxaca is that it empowers you to create just below restaurant-quality meals at home without breaking the bank. Think about it: a complex mole sauce, packed with layers of flavor, might cost a pretty penny at a restaurant. But by making it yourself, using dried chiles and other affordable ingredients, you can achieve a very good taste for a fraction of the price. It's an investment of time, certainly, but a savvy cook can maximize the value of each ingredient, stretching their budget further while still creating truly memorable dishes. So, if you're looking for a cookbook that will inspire you to create delicious and authentic Oaxacan meals without emptying your wallet, Oaxaca is a surprisingly cost-effective choice.
The result is a culinary marathon, not a sprint. And while crossing the finish line with a plate of beautifully layered tlayudas or richly flavored mole is incredibly rewarding, the journey can be exhausting. There were times when I found myself questioning if I was truly enjoying the dish or if I was just so relieved to finally be eating something after hours in the kitchen that I was simply craving sustenance. The flavors are there, no doubt about it. But the sheer amount of work involved sometimes overshadows the pleasure of the meal.
I am happy to say that it's a cookbook that promises a taste of Oaxaca, and it delivers on that promise, but be prepared to invest some serious time and energy to truly savor it. It's a resource for special occasions, culinary adventures, and those days when you have absolutely nothing else to do but immerse yourself in the beautiful (and sometimes exhausting) world of Oaxacan cooking. For those reasons I am considering this book to be a kitchen staple.
Do the cookbook's dishes justify the time, effort, and cost involved?
While some of the recipes in Oaxaca require a time investment and a bit of effort, the resulting dishes are absolutely worth it, particularly when considering the cost-effectiveness of the ingredients. It's true that some dishes involve multiple components – salsas, moles, toppings – which can add to the prep time. But the core ingredients themselves are often surprisingly affordable. Many of the foundational flavors come from readily available and budget-friendly staples like dried chiles, onions, garlic, and spices. Yes, sourcing some of the more specialized ingredients might require a trip to a Latin American market, but even these are often reasonably priced, especially when purchased in bulk. And while fresh produce is essential to Oaxacan cooking, a lot of what is called for is dried which can keep costs down.
The beauty of Oaxaca is that it empowers you to create just below restaurant-quality meals at home without breaking the bank. Think about it: a complex mole sauce, packed with layers of flavor, might cost a pretty penny at a restaurant. But by making it yourself, using dried chiles and other affordable ingredients, you can achieve a very good taste for a fraction of the price. It's an investment of time, certainly, but a savvy cook can maximize the value of each ingredient, stretching their budget further while still creating truly memorable dishes. So, if you're looking for a cookbook that will inspire you to create delicious and authentic Oaxacan meals without emptying your wallet, Oaxaca is a surprisingly cost-effective choice.
August 29, 2025
I'm writing this review after having made the Black Mole recipe. It turned out delicious but I'm giving this book a low rating because of the poorly written recipes. They are vague, inconsistent and feel like they were not edited.
Some examples:
- The Black Mole recipe says to reserve the oil used to fry chiles. Reserved for what? I don't know because all following steps requiring oil say to use fresh oil. This would be fine if different recipes that involve frying in oil didn't say the oil should be discarded.
- The Black Mole recipe says that 1 cup of oil is 240ml. On the same page it says that 1/2 cup of oil is 240ml. So if you're going to cook with this, make sure to cross-check the metric and imperial measurements.
- The Black Mole recipe also calls for "1 onion." What kind of onion? I don't know. Other recipes call for white onions. Does the type of onion used in the mole not matter? Maybe, but I'd at least like the recipe author to mention that instead of having me wondering if I can use a bag of frozen pearl onions.
- Measurements for chiles by weight are given as "100g, stems and seeds removed." Does this mean I need 100g of chiles from which I should remove the stems and seeds or do I need 100g of chiles once the stems and seeds have been removed? The weight of the seeds really adds up when we're talking about 300g of chiles in a single recipe. Perhaps everybody on earth knows the right answer but me and it's purely my problem but I don't think I'm alone on this one.
- The Pollo en Barbacoa recipe says to bake the dish for 1 hour without providing a temperature. I assume this means 350F but I want a recipe, not homework on the history of oven technology (https://www.allrecipes.com/article/wh...)
Many of the good reviews for this book are coming from people who clearly state they've not attempted any of the recipes. I don't have much to say about this as somebody who pays the mortgage on a glass house but at the very least, I find it confusing.
I would also love if the book had some suggestions for how to use the moles. I now have almost a gallon of black mole and I'm now discovering that I don't know anybody who's tried and liked mole (their loss) so my plan of giving away half of it isn't going to work out. I'm not letting this effect my rating of the book, I just thought you should know.
That being said, I do highly recommend this book because the results are great. But maybe get it from the library, don't take the recipes too literally and be prepared to fill in the gaps yourself.
TLDR; the recipes are poorly written but the one I made still came out great
Some examples:
- The Black Mole recipe says to reserve the oil used to fry chiles. Reserved for what? I don't know because all following steps requiring oil say to use fresh oil. This would be fine if different recipes that involve frying in oil didn't say the oil should be discarded.
- The Black Mole recipe says that 1 cup of oil is 240ml. On the same page it says that 1/2 cup of oil is 240ml. So if you're going to cook with this, make sure to cross-check the metric and imperial measurements.
- The Black Mole recipe also calls for "1 onion." What kind of onion? I don't know. Other recipes call for white onions. Does the type of onion used in the mole not matter? Maybe, but I'd at least like the recipe author to mention that instead of having me wondering if I can use a bag of frozen pearl onions.
- Measurements for chiles by weight are given as "100g, stems and seeds removed." Does this mean I need 100g of chiles from which I should remove the stems and seeds or do I need 100g of chiles once the stems and seeds have been removed? The weight of the seeds really adds up when we're talking about 300g of chiles in a single recipe. Perhaps everybody on earth knows the right answer but me and it's purely my problem but I don't think I'm alone on this one.
- The Pollo en Barbacoa recipe says to bake the dish for 1 hour without providing a temperature. I assume this means 350F but I want a recipe, not homework on the history of oven technology (https://www.allrecipes.com/article/wh...)
Many of the good reviews for this book are coming from people who clearly state they've not attempted any of the recipes. I don't have much to say about this as somebody who pays the mortgage on a glass house but at the very least, I find it confusing.
I would also love if the book had some suggestions for how to use the moles. I now have almost a gallon of black mole and I'm now discovering that I don't know anybody who's tried and liked mole (their loss) so my plan of giving away half of it isn't going to work out. I'm not letting this effect my rating of the book, I just thought you should know.
That being said, I do highly recommend this book because the results are great. But maybe get it from the library, don't take the recipes too literally and be prepared to fill in the gaps yourself.
TLDR; the recipes are poorly written but the one I made still came out great
July 20, 2025
As an addition to my cookbooks, I thought this was excellent.
At this point, Mexican-style cooking isn't new to me, having gone through several months of decent deep-dives either online, with books, or with online friends from the region (both Mexico itself or the borderlands).
There is an element in some other reviews that touches on the difficulty of getting hold of certain ingredients. Whilst this is technically true (for instance, one literally cannot buy fresh poblanos in the UK), it's...somewhat...unfair to judge a book on that when it was written for audiences that can do so.
That said, it's laid out very well, has beautiful pictures, and the stories told in between the recipes are very compelling.
I've cooked from most of the sections (moles excluded), and each recipe has been delicious.
A few things to pull out for special attention: the "staples" at the beginning (beans, mainly, for me, this gave me my favourite black bean recipe), the various chilaquiles, the various toppings for corn tortillas and "Rustic Oaxacan Tomato Sauce" which I've been faithfully using for lunches since.
The moles and finger foods (tamales etc) are slightly outside of my physical capabilities right now, but I've made probably 80% of the "family meals" section, with enormous success.
I've had to sub in lamb for goat, sure, and some different cuts where necessary, but each one has been delicious, even with the subs.
If you're careful, and observant, this can be folded into a cooking method of making sauces on the weekend (or whenever you have time/spoons), and then using that as base for creating something bigger - for example, the pollo enchipotlada can absolutely use a pre-prepped chipotle/tomato sauce, the pollo barbacoa and costillas con verdolaga can use the same base tomatillo sauce as the salsa de carne frita, and the lamb and goat barbacoas (whilst served very differently), use a very similar guajillo sauce base - with only minor tweaks, which can honestly be ignored for the purposes of a home cook.
At this point, Mexican-style cooking isn't new to me, having gone through several months of decent deep-dives either online, with books, or with online friends from the region (both Mexico itself or the borderlands).
There is an element in some other reviews that touches on the difficulty of getting hold of certain ingredients. Whilst this is technically true (for instance, one literally cannot buy fresh poblanos in the UK), it's...somewhat...unfair to judge a book on that when it was written for audiences that can do so.
That said, it's laid out very well, has beautiful pictures, and the stories told in between the recipes are very compelling.
I've cooked from most of the sections (moles excluded), and each recipe has been delicious.
A few things to pull out for special attention: the "staples" at the beginning (beans, mainly, for me, this gave me my favourite black bean recipe), the various chilaquiles, the various toppings for corn tortillas and "Rustic Oaxacan Tomato Sauce" which I've been faithfully using for lunches since.
The moles and finger foods (tamales etc) are slightly outside of my physical capabilities right now, but I've made probably 80% of the "family meals" section, with enormous success.
I've had to sub in lamb for goat, sure, and some different cuts where necessary, but each one has been delicious, even with the subs.
If you're careful, and observant, this can be folded into a cooking method of making sauces on the weekend (or whenever you have time/spoons), and then using that as base for creating something bigger - for example, the pollo enchipotlada can absolutely use a pre-prepped chipotle/tomato sauce, the pollo barbacoa and costillas con verdolaga can use the same base tomatillo sauce as the salsa de carne frita, and the lamb and goat barbacoas (whilst served very differently), use a very similar guajillo sauce base - with only minor tweaks, which can honestly be ignored for the purposes of a home cook.
December 13, 2019
I haven't even cooked anything from this, but DAMN this is a beautiful book for my LA, mole-loving soul; Guelaguetza is such a great restaurant, and this cookbook is such a lovely tribute not only to Oaxacan cuisine, but Mexican-Americans in southern California and this family in particular. Photos are plentiful and colorful, the book as an artifact is gorgeous, recipe instructions seem thoughtful and clear, and it's just an overall pleasure to sit with even if you don't have mole cooking or mezcal in hand.
July 19, 2025
My family recently celebrated with a meal at Guelaguetza in Los Angeles and were floored by the moles and chapulines and everything in Southern California’s preeminent Oaxaca restaurant.
It was a joy to bolster that experince by reading this cookbook my Bricia Lopez. The recipes are straightforward and feel exciting. I already have one mole simmering as I type.
There are lush pictures of the people, food, and locations around Oaxaca. I wish the design of the text and recipe pages was different stylistically. Bricia Lopez’s next book “Asada” is a visual stunner.
It was a joy to bolster that experince by reading this cookbook my Bricia Lopez. The recipes are straightforward and feel exciting. I already have one mole simmering as I type.
There are lush pictures of the people, food, and locations around Oaxaca. I wish the design of the text and recipe pages was different stylistically. Bricia Lopez’s next book “Asada” is a visual stunner.
March 8, 2020
One of the best cookbooks I’ve read in awhile. Reflective of our current politics and an important read in building cultural and culinary connection with our southern neighbors. Also - there are at least three molé recipes, what’s not to love?
August 17, 2021
The foods all looked delicious and the instructions were easy to understand, I just wish some of the ingredients are easier to find but that is not something that can be changed easily. I am eager to try some of these recipes though! I will find a way!
January 1, 2023
Wow! This cookbook not only has incredible, authentic recipes, but it also has a wealth of cultural information. I learned a lot, and I can’t wait to make many of these recipes and go back to Oaxaca one day!
August 1, 2024
I loved reading about the Lopez family’s story and rich culture in Oaxaca and how their restaurant, Guelaguetza, came to be. A couple of these were already staples for us like the molletes, but I saved a couple more to try.
November 23, 2024
This is the best cookbook I own. It's accessible and authentic. It has great stories and photography that really connect the food to the culture through the author's own experience. This cookbook changed my typical weekly diet.
August 4, 2020
Fantastic book of Oaxacan cooking and beautiful writing. Bricia Lopez and Javier Cabral should be proud of this.
May 24, 2021
Read in accordance with #rainydaybitescookbookclub ! So glad I did so !
December 27, 2021
I can’t wait to make mole negro and taste the many other treasured recipes in this gem of a book.
July 20, 2022
Pretty pictures, fairly repetitive and basic recipes. Worth a read but probably not worth buying.
May 15, 2023
A beautiful book with fantastic recipes as well as stories. Everything sounded delicious and there were a bunch of dishes I had never heard of before.
January 9, 2024
second best to traveling
A testament to the extraordinary cuisine of Oaxaca. Thoughtful. Thorough. Pleasant read. I’ll have many recipes to cook over the next few weeks.
A testament to the extraordinary cuisine of Oaxaca. Thoughtful. Thorough. Pleasant read. I’ll have many recipes to cook over the next few weeks.
August 10, 2024
I love Bricia's family's restaurant, Guelaguetza! This book is an incredible gateway into cooking everyday Mexican although I've had to buy stuff I usually don't have on hand like avocado leaves and epazote, but Mexican food is something I want to cook for the rest of my life.
October 9, 2024
I am definitely buying this one, I wanted to make almost every recipe immediately!
August 21, 2023
I don’t know of a more authentic cookbook on Oaxaca’s cuisine than this one. I don’t know of all that many books specifically on Oaxacan cuisine, so take that statement for what it’s worth.
Perhaps you are wondering just what makes it so authentic? Would you like to know how to prepare masa from scratch? It’s here. How about a salsa made from those tasty, crispy chapulines (crickets) they serve like popcorn? Yep, that’s here too. (Though I wish she’d tell us how to get them tasty and crispy first. Done right, they’re better than popcorn and have the added benefits of being seriously high in protein AND making you feel all hardcore like John the Baptist.) Have you wondered what Mexicans do with nopal—those prickly cactus paddles sold in well-stocked Mexican groceries? Wonder no longer. She’ll give you multiple ways to use them, including my favorite way to eat what has long been my favorite Mexican veggie, with scrambled eggs. Have you longed to explore the mysteries of mole? Now you have 9 different types to try! She is almost apologetic about the 14 salsas included (15 if you count the black bean sauce—and you definitely should as it is actually served as a salsa there). I want to take her by the shoulders and assure her, “You can never have too many salsas! It’s the one thing in Mexican cookbooks that I ALWAYS wish there were more of. It’s literally vegetables turned into a TREAT.”
Some people complain about cookbooks that have base recipes that are then used in a plethora of the other recipes in a cookbook. Those people will not be happy with this cookbook. On the other hand, we’re not talking “pickled kumquats in cardamom syrup” or something else totally random as a base recipe used in one dish in the whole book. Mexican food is versatile like that. You make the Mexican mother sauce (she calls it Salsa Roja Basica, but I just call it what it is) or any tomatillo salsa and any one bean recipe in the book and then, any given day for the next week, in 15 minutes or less, you can make molletes, entomatadas, chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, huevo or chicharron en frijol, salsa de (huevo, chicharron, queso, chorizo, take your pick based on what you have on hand). If you’re a breakfast and/or lunch eater, you’ll quickly and easily be feasting like a king. These two basic recipes will also aid you in your own riffs for tacos and salads, so there’s really no excuse to not make them. (I feel a disclaimer is necessary here. A few years ago, on a trip to Baja, I ate tacos and salsa for 3 meals a day for 3 days straight just to see if I ever tired of them. I did not. I could’ve kept going but broke my streak on some fantastic ceviche. Maybe you’re not like me and these base recipes won’t be so useful for you. But you won’t know til you try and the ingredients are cheap, healthy, and easily prepared so why not find out?)
That said, I have a few quibbles. A lot of recipes call for fresh avocado, epazote and hoja santa leaves. Most people won’t have access to these or the climate to grow them. A suggestion for a halfway decent substitute would be highly appreciated or at least a mention that there is no decent substitute. Like, maybe anise seeds and bay leaves could mostly replicate the flavor of avocado leaves in a pot of beans and an epazote tea bag or epazote extract used in place of a fresh epazote sprig in the same recipe or Swiss chard leaves in place of the hoja santa leaves used to cradle eggs cooked on a comal. I can only guess as no mention of substitution is made in these places (and the gardener mistook my epazote for weeds while I was out of the country. I’m not bitter or anything. It IS a scruffy, unattractively odiferous plant.)
Anyway, this is the kind of Mexican cooking that actually resembles the food you’ll eat in this particular region of Mexico, rather than what you’ll find in Mexican restaurants north of the border. If that sounds ideal to you, you’ll probably find this book helpful, particularly if you’re interested in exploring the highly regional cooking of this magnificently varied country.
Perhaps you are wondering just what makes it so authentic? Would you like to know how to prepare masa from scratch? It’s here. How about a salsa made from those tasty, crispy chapulines (crickets) they serve like popcorn? Yep, that’s here too. (Though I wish she’d tell us how to get them tasty and crispy first. Done right, they’re better than popcorn and have the added benefits of being seriously high in protein AND making you feel all hardcore like John the Baptist.) Have you wondered what Mexicans do with nopal—those prickly cactus paddles sold in well-stocked Mexican groceries? Wonder no longer. She’ll give you multiple ways to use them, including my favorite way to eat what has long been my favorite Mexican veggie, with scrambled eggs. Have you longed to explore the mysteries of mole? Now you have 9 different types to try! She is almost apologetic about the 14 salsas included (15 if you count the black bean sauce—and you definitely should as it is actually served as a salsa there). I want to take her by the shoulders and assure her, “You can never have too many salsas! It’s the one thing in Mexican cookbooks that I ALWAYS wish there were more of. It’s literally vegetables turned into a TREAT.”
Some people complain about cookbooks that have base recipes that are then used in a plethora of the other recipes in a cookbook. Those people will not be happy with this cookbook. On the other hand, we’re not talking “pickled kumquats in cardamom syrup” or something else totally random as a base recipe used in one dish in the whole book. Mexican food is versatile like that. You make the Mexican mother sauce (she calls it Salsa Roja Basica, but I just call it what it is) or any tomatillo salsa and any one bean recipe in the book and then, any given day for the next week, in 15 minutes or less, you can make molletes, entomatadas, chilaquiles, huevos rancheros, huevo or chicharron en frijol, salsa de (huevo, chicharron, queso, chorizo, take your pick based on what you have on hand). If you’re a breakfast and/or lunch eater, you’ll quickly and easily be feasting like a king. These two basic recipes will also aid you in your own riffs for tacos and salads, so there’s really no excuse to not make them. (I feel a disclaimer is necessary here. A few years ago, on a trip to Baja, I ate tacos and salsa for 3 meals a day for 3 days straight just to see if I ever tired of them. I did not. I could’ve kept going but broke my streak on some fantastic ceviche. Maybe you’re not like me and these base recipes won’t be so useful for you. But you won’t know til you try and the ingredients are cheap, healthy, and easily prepared so why not find out?)
That said, I have a few quibbles. A lot of recipes call for fresh avocado, epazote and hoja santa leaves. Most people won’t have access to these or the climate to grow them. A suggestion for a halfway decent substitute would be highly appreciated or at least a mention that there is no decent substitute. Like, maybe anise seeds and bay leaves could mostly replicate the flavor of avocado leaves in a pot of beans and an epazote tea bag or epazote extract used in place of a fresh epazote sprig in the same recipe or Swiss chard leaves in place of the hoja santa leaves used to cradle eggs cooked on a comal. I can only guess as no mention of substitution is made in these places (and the gardener mistook my epazote for weeds while I was out of the country. I’m not bitter or anything. It IS a scruffy, unattractively odiferous plant.)
Anyway, this is the kind of Mexican cooking that actually resembles the food you’ll eat in this particular region of Mexico, rather than what you’ll find in Mexican restaurants north of the border. If that sounds ideal to you, you’ll probably find this book helpful, particularly if you’re interested in exploring the highly regional cooking of this magnificently varied country.
June 14, 2021
Reviewed on Veggietable For Two
April 6, 2024
Yo amo, I love this book!!! so much I made a video review about it.
🎬Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXJaC...
Bricia lopez and her family along with the history of Guelaguetza is beyond inspiring. Im not Mexican but it felt like home to read the pages and have a look at all the pictures. Colorful and full of explanations on the originas and history of ingredients.
Plus points for including the step by step picture on how to fold envueltos. Please read the intro is worth every penny, it contains Mexican history and also valuable experiences from the migratory journeys her family made to the US.
My score:
🌽 Accesibility of ingredients: 3,5 (I live in Sweden so its hard to get ingredients)
🌽 Originality: 4 - recipes i have not seen anywhere.
🌽 Cultural sensitivity: 5
Would I buy this for a friend? YES!
🎬Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXJaC...
Bricia lopez and her family along with the history of Guelaguetza is beyond inspiring. Im not Mexican but it felt like home to read the pages and have a look at all the pictures. Colorful and full of explanations on the originas and history of ingredients.
Plus points for including the step by step picture on how to fold envueltos. Please read the intro is worth every penny, it contains Mexican history and also valuable experiences from the migratory journeys her family made to the US.
My score:
🌽 Accesibility of ingredients: 3,5 (I live in Sweden so its hard to get ingredients)
🌽 Originality: 4 - recipes i have not seen anywhere.
🌽 Cultural sensitivity: 5
Would I buy this for a friend? YES!
February 6, 2020
Such a beautiful book that lets you know the history of the food and traditional dishes of the family. The illustrations and images are beautiful. I look forward to trying some of these recipes myself. Always look forward to eating at Bricia Lopez' family restaurant La Guelaguetza when I'm in LA.
August 11, 2025
250706: this cookbook certainly inspires me with Mexican recipes. this also makes me sad. my current living situation I have no kitchen, I cannot cook, I try with my mom but- no she does not much like spicy or hot dishes... the last time I did only my choice was with girlfriend I lived with. we learned to cook together. I wish we had this book then...
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