In new cookbooks from chefs Rick Martinez and Kwame Onwuachi, culture and autobiography collide in exciting ways, and the definition of “authentic” is never tidy or straightforward
, people rely on cookbooks to travel to the places they’ve never been—and the places they long to return to. But in the quest for dishes that conjure a place and its people, it’s easy to lose track of a basic question: Who’s doing the cooking, which stories get told and what exactly is an authentic recipe anyway? Two new cookbooks grapple with those questions—and deliver delicious answers.
In “Mi Cocina: Recipes and Rapture from My Kitchen in Mexico” , ex-Bon Appétit food editor Rick Martínez shares dishes inspired by a nearly two-year journey through every state in Mexico, one he began in 2019. But Mr. Martínez doesn’t claim to be an expert in Mexican cuisine. After a childhood eating Chef Boyardee in Austin, Texas, he freely admits, he “had a very scattered, incomplete picture of Mexico.