La Mesa Mexicana: The Food of Mexico — Rosa Cienfuegos

Mexico has one of the oldest and most varied food traditions in the world. La Mesa Mexicana is Rosa Cienfuegos’s attempt to do it justice — a thorough, respectful tour through all eight culinary regions of the country, with more than 120 recipes gathered from the people and places that keep these traditions alive.

Cienfuegos travels from the northern borderlands of Baja, Chihuahua, and Tamaulipas — where you’ll find the original chile con queso, carne asada, and fish tacos — through the central heartland of Jalisco, Puebla, and Michoacán, with its drowned tortas from Guadalajara and goat tacos from the semiarid hills of Querétaro. The journey ends in the south: Veracruz, Yucatán, and Oaxaca, where she uncovers the secrets behind a proper mole negro and the everyday tlayuda.

This is the follow-up to her acclaimed CDMX, and it shows the same care — honest recipes, beautiful photography, and stories from the regions that explain not just how to cook the food, but where it comes from and why it matters.

• 120+ recipes spanning all eight culinary regions of Mexico
• Covers northern, central, and southern Mexican cuisine in depth
• Includes Indigenous and lesser-known regional recipes
• Stunning food and location photography throughout
• A follow-up to CDMX by Rosa Cienfuegos

A solid, generous cookbook for anyone who wants to cook Mexican food the way it’s actually made.