Dona Tomas: Discovering Authentic Mexican Cooking

by Thomas Schnetz, Dona Savitsky, Mike Wille

Ninety recipes for delicious Mexican food anytime of the day from the beloved Bay Area restaurant Delicious dining and simple word-of-mouth have turned Dona Tomas into a destination where happy patrons line up nightly to sample chef Thomas Schnetz's authentic Mexican cooking. Schnetz, along with his partner, Dona Savitsky, have studied the regional cooking of Mexico, including dishes from Oaxaca, Veracruz, and the Yucatan, to craft a menu that is a mouth-watering tribute to the diversity of Mexican cuisines.

Genres: Cookbooks, Food, Cooking

224 pages, Hardcover

First published June 1, 2006

Reviews

[Gaijinmama · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is Food Porn pure and simple. The pictures are just luscious. In addition to more complicated recipes, this book had, hands-down, the best simple way to prepare green beans. My kids will actually eat them, which is amazing. The corn pudding is to die for as well.

[Andrea · Rating 5 out of 5]

The second book we tried in our fledgling cookbook club. Absolutely fantastic! There were a number of simple recipes and a great many very complicated ones... This is Mexican, but it's so far beyond burritos it's not even funny. I made the melon recipe which included two kinds of melon, chili powder, olive oil, salt, pepper, mint and crema... It ends up being a spicy, savory melon salad. The chile rellenos blew my mind (mmm smothered in a walnut-milk sauce, but Arwen says they're very complicated to make). The shrimp tacos (dripping butter of course, with garlic, cilantro, salt, olive oil, pepper), the carne asada (what was in that sauce?), some kind of cilantro dish... were all absolutely divine. But the cinnamon/fruit/walnut cake took the cake and I ate until I could neither eat nor speak any further. I now crave that cake every moment of every day (okay, just anytime I think of it—I must get that recipe).

[Ryan Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oakland's Dona Tomas is an amazing, and not your run-of-the-mill, Mexican restaurant...and now you can have chef Thomas Schnetz's secrets. I found this book colorful and fun to read, that is, if you like to "read" cookbooks as I do (which I find can be like poetry). A word of warning for the novice (Mexican food) cook--these recipes are challenging and the ingredients are not likely found on the shelves of your typical market. Look to a local Mexicatessen, preferably one with sheets of fried pig skin hanging in the windows, and you're sure to find everything you need and have a whole new appreciation and respect for Mexican cuisine.

[Lindsay · Rating 3 out of 5]

i love eating at dona tomas in oakland. it's fun to learn about this kind of cooking, and occasionally try it. pretty complicated cooking for a rookie like me, plus although i live in san diego, i only have access to maybe 5 types of chilis. i dream of someday basking in the kind of ingredients they use and trying to make more stuff.

[olivia · Rating 5 out of 5]

really wonderful. i live for the tomatillo salsa verde recipe in here.

[jennifer]

like, every recipe in this book calls for whipping cream. sometimes in the dish AND on top. sweet.