Yucatán: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition

by David Sterling

Winner, James Beard Foundation Best Cookbook of the Year Award, 2015James Beard Foundation Best International Cookbook Award, 2015The Art of Eating Prize for Best Food Book of the Year, 2015

The Yucatan Peninsula is home to one of the world's great regional cuisines. With a foundation of native Maya dishes made from fresh local ingredients, it shares much of the same pantry of ingredients and many culinary practices with the rest of Mexico. Yet, due to its isolated peninsular location, it was also in a unique position to absorb the foods and flavors of such far-flung regions as Spain and Portugal, France, Holland, Lebanon and the Levant, Cuba and the Caribbean, and Africa. In recent years, gourmet magazines and celebrity chefs have popularized certain Yucatecan dishes and ingredients, such as Sopa de lima and "achiote," and global gastronomes have made the pilgrimage to Yucatan to tantalize their taste buds with smoky pit barbecues, citrus-based pickles, and fiery chiles. But until now, the full depth and richness of this cuisine has remained little understood beyond Yucatan's borders.

An internationally recognized authority on Yucatecan cuisine, chef David Sterling takes you on a gastronomic tour of the peninsula in this unique cookbook, "Yucatan: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition." Presenting the food in the places where it's savored, Sterling begins in jungle towns where Mayas concoct age-old recipes with a few simple ingredients they grow themselves. He travels over a thousand miles along the broad Yucatan coast to sample a bounty of seafood; shares "the people's food"at bakeries, "chicharronerias," street vendors, home restaurants, and cantinas; and highlights the cooking of the peninsula's three largest cities Campeche, Merida, and Valladolid as well as a variety of pueblos noted for signature dishes. Throughout the journey, Sterling serves up over 275 authentic, thoroughly tested recipes that will appeal to both novice and professional cooks. He also discusses pantry staples and basic cooking techniques and offers substitutions for local ingredients that may be hard to find elsewhere. Profusely illustrated and spiced with lively stories of the region's people and places, "Yucatan: Recipes from a Culinary Expedition" is the long-awaited definitive work on this distinctive cuisine."

Genres: Cookbooks, Cooking, Food, Travel, Food and Drink, Nonfiction, Cultural

576 pages, Hardcover

First published March 30, 2014

Reviews

[Joyce · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a huge book jam packed with recipes, history, pictures and advice. It's a culinary tour de force. The essence of the Yucatan is truly captured on these pages. Having just returned from the Yucatan, my appreciation for the recipes and information assembled in this book is much deeper.

David Sterling also has a cooking school in Merida, Los Dos, which unfortunately did not offer a class on the days we were there. From the research and care that went into this book, the class would have been amazing I'm sure. Oh well. Next trip.

This book is a showstopper. While different spices and foods are used, the recipes are approachable. And now that I have experienced first hand many of the places and meals in the book, I am ready to cook.

Once last comment. Upon reflection, Yucatan meals are quite healthy, not spicy hot and so delicious. Now where in the world can I find some chaya? Thank you David Sterling.

[Casey Kittrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is so much more than a cookbook. It's a drop-dead gorgeous culinary history of Mexico’s Yucatán region, a history that can be traced back to the ancient Maya, but European, Lebanese, Cuban, and Mexican (non-Yucatecan) influences have been thoroughly incorporated to create an incredibly rich field for today’s gastronomes. It's a 300-recipe cookbook that documents their historical roots, and how they fit into Yucatan’s food culture today. That's why the book is not organized into traditional appetizers-soups-salads-entrees-desserts. Instead, it's organized around places where food is found. Thus, there are sections on traditional Maya foodways and the dishes that come out of hunting-gathering, or from a kitchen garden. The role of bakeries, chicharronerías, street food, cantinas, and informal mom-and-pop restaurants run out of the home are given their proper role as pillars of Yucatecan food culture. Mérida, Campeche, and Valladolid (Yucatan’s three largest cities) have their own sections, and special pueblos known for a signature food are described as well. In this way, the book is as much a personal guided tour through the peninsula as a compendium of recipes. And unlike some authors, David Sterling adapts, where necessary, virtually all of the recipes so that they can be prepared by an amateur home cook in North America. A glossary, bibliography, and index make this a truly comprehensive work that should appeal to professionals as well as casual foodies.

[Linda Ferreri · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just submitted a review to Amazon after receiving this book as an extremely thoughtful gift from a friend who knows that I love great books about food and cooking. Well, this one goes to the very top of the list in all categories. It's a brilliant book, beautiful, extremely informative about a place and a cuisine unknown to many of us. This is to be savored in itself before diving into the cooking experience. You just curl up in a big chair and get lost in it. For the serious cook who is very tired of celebrity chef books, this is for you.

[Zora O'Neill · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wowowow. An amazing document of a regional cuisine that's rarely covered in such detail. I especially love the Market section, with names of fruits and veg and herbs in Spanish/English/Latin/Mayan. Incredibly helpful. This is definitely up there with Diana Kennedy's books, in terms of anthropological detail.

[Leonard · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a very impressive book with elegant photographs. I didn't read the whole thing or every recipe in it, but if I was planning to visit the Yucatan Peninsula I would refer to this one again. It includes information about the country and the towns as well as recipes of the food consumed there. Some history is also included. Everything is very appetizing.

[Valeria · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful book, lots of info about cooking and the culture of the Yucatan.

[Nicole · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've made several recipes from this book. Sterling's love and respect for the food, people, and culture of the Yucatan peninsula is apparent in his cookbook, and though the layout is a bit non-traditional (think coffee table book/cookbook), it is undoubtedly a great resource for those seeking to sample the delicious flavor palate of the region. I cooked the recipes in tandem with recipes for the same/similar dishes in the great Diana Kennedy's 'Art of Mexican Cooking', and Maricel Presilla's 'Gran Cocina Latina'. In the end, they each have their strengths and weaknesses in how they come at translating and presenting the recipes. I found David Sterling's recipe for sopa de lima almost unusable, with him saying, basically, that it was almost impossible to recreate this recipe without some very specific ingredients, where Presilla presents a completely delicious version of the soup, starting from with a spiced chicken broth. In turn, Sterling's recado rojo recipe was much easier to follow than Kennedy's, as she has you referring to other pages. There was, however, agreement between all the authors in the flavor palate and ingredient work-arounds for the wonderful cuisine of the region, which was a nice verification. It is great to know that with books such as these it's possible to re-create/approximate truly authentic Mexican food here in the Pacific Northwest. I hope to one day own this book along with Kennedy's 'Oaxaca al Gusto' so that I can gain more working familiarity with the delicious and unique flavors of southern Mexico.

[Pam Cipkowski · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a cook, but this is one of the best cookbooks I've ever seen. I checked it out mainly because of my interest in the Yucatán region, and the recent trip I took there. Over 500 pages take you on a culinary expedition though the Yucatán peninsula, from Tulum to Merida, and through little pueblos to describe the history and techniques of baking, flavoring, garnishing, and preparing food in ways that are unique to the Yucatán. The history of the region itself is covered, with fascinating details on Mayan culture, growth of major cities, and culture and tradition. Some pictures show the food being prepared or the final product, but other pictures capture the people and vibrant scenes of life in the region. This is not a cookbook for beginners, although there is a section on pantry staples and basic techniques. If you have even a remote interest in Mexican food or the Yucatán peninsula, you'll find this book interesting.

[Jack Keely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Considering David Sterling’s years of experience as an influential New York graphic designer, it is no surprise that his 560 page Yucatan, Recipes From A Culinary Expedition is a visual feast. When Sterling left Manhattan to settle in a beautiful colonial house in Merida on the Yucatan Peninsula, he fell in love with the culture, the people and the food. Now he is a celebrated chef and the founder of the first culinary institute devoted to Yucatan cooking, a cuisine built on a Mayan foundation but incorporating a variety of influences from Cuba to France. With its intriguing text and gorgeous photography, it is easy to see why this delicious volume (part autobiography, part travel guide, part history lesson, and part cookery book) received the Best International Cookbook Award and was named Cookbook of the Year by the James Beard Foundation.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

More a history lesson and anthropological study than cookbook, my rating comes from the fact that so many specialty ingredients make it unlikely I will cook often from the book. But it's glorious! I am going to mix up some of the spice rubs, make horchata, try coconut sorbet and check out their masa recipe this week. I even found a stew to make with the beefalo heart I have in the freezer. Definitely worth a look.

[Wdmoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a gorgeous book full of lovely pictures and recipes I will never make, but who cares, it's wonderful reading. Just don't leave on your coffee table or someone will ask to borrow and never return it.

[Mills College Library]

641.59726 S8386 2014

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

really comprehensive, excellent information, lots of recipes.

You might have a hard time finding ingredients in some areas.

[MM · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is amazing and there is no way I'll ever cook from it. PS: okay, maybe I'll try some of the simple things.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exhaustively researched, hugely interesting cookbook, although somewhat intimidating when many of the recipes require multiple steps of prep work before cooking.

[Danny Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is so much more than a cookbook. You could teach a college-level course on Yucatan with this book. The amount of work that went into this is astounding and it gave me a profound cultural/historical/culinary/geographic/geological/biological tour of the peninsula. I was so impressed that I looked up the author to see if I could invite him to give a talk at work, but sadly he has since passed away. The only reason I don’t get it five stars, although no fault of the author’s since it is true for Yucatecan cuisine, is the few vegetarian recipes. I did appreciate how in many recipes he would offer the traditional method, a more user-friendly method, and an optional tweak that he thought enhanced the recipe but he was sure to include it would be less traditional if altered.

[Riegs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Shout out to Valladolid for being amazing.