Margarita Carrillo Arronte’s Mexico: The Cookbook is the book with the bright, laser-cut cover that turns up on so many cookbook shelves. Phaidon published it in 2014 as a single-volume survey of Mexican home cooking: a 704-page hardback with hundreds of recipes from every region, from street snacks and salsas to moles, seafood and sweets.
It is also the book we name as the best single reference in our guide to the best Mexican cookbooks. This review looks at it more closely: what is inside, who wrote it, what published reviewers said, where it falls short, and which book to buy instead if it is not the right fit. We have not cooked our way through it; what we say about the recipes comes from the publisher, library records and the reviewers we name.
Julia’s earns a commission on purchases made through links on this page, at no cost to you. Recommendations are based on what a working Mexican kitchen looks for in a cookbook, the publisher’s own details and published reviews, which we cite. We have not cooked from these books ourselves.
Quick verdict: who should buy Mexico: The Cookbook
Buy Mexico: The Cookbook if you already cook and want one book that shows how broad Mexican food really is: hundreds of recipes across every region, with an introduction to the history, ingredients and techniques behind them. Skip it if you want to be taught step by step. Its recipes are short by design, and Diana Kennedy’s The Essential Cuisines of Mexico or Pati Jinich’s Mexican Today will teach you more per page.
Below: the book’s details, its strengths and drawbacks, what reviewers found, and three alternatives.
What Mexico: The Cookbook is
The book is by Margarita Carrillo Arronte, a Mexican chef who, according to Phaidon, has spent more than 25 years researching, studying, teaching and cooking Mexican cuisine. Phaidon’s biography says she was chef for Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture from 1996 to 2006, cooking at Mexican food festivals and gala dinners in North America, Europe and Asia, that she led a 2010 campaign for Mexican cuisine to be recognized by UNESCO, and that she teaches and leads the Slow Food movement in Baja California.
The book is built as a reference: a long introduction, then recipes grouped by course, then the chefs’ section. Here are the details the publisher and library records give.
| Detail | Mexico: The Cookbook |
|---|---|
| Author | Margarita Carrillo Arronte |
| Publisher | Phaidon (London and New York) |
| Published | October 2014 |
| Format | Hardback, 270 x 180 mm (about 10.6 x 7.1 in) |
| Pages | 704 (Phaidon); Publishers Weekly’s pre-publication review listed 688 |
| Recipes | “More than 700” on Phaidon’s product page; “more than 650” elsewhere on Phaidon’s site; NPR reported about 600 |
| Chapters | Street food, starters, drinks, fish and seafood, meat and poultry, vegetables, pulses and rice, desserts; plus a chefs’ menu section |
| Extras | Introduction to history, ingredients and techniques; bibliography and index (library record) |
| ISBN | 978-0-7148-6752-6 |
The recipe count is the one figure that will not sit still. Phaidon’s own pages disagree with each other, and NPR’s correspondent, who visited the author in Mexico City, put it at about 600. Whatever the exact number, it is several times what most Mexican cookbooks hold.
Where the book is strongest
Range. This is the book’s whole case. Publishers Weekly, reviewing it in October 2014, said it goes beyond the standard course chapters to cover snacks, street food, eggs, rice and beans, and bread and pastries, and that the introduction covers Mexico’s geography, history and agriculture along with staples such as corn, chiles and tortillas. NPR’s Carrie Kahn counted 40 salsas and 15 egg dishes alone. If you have eaten something in Mexico and want to know how it is made, the odds of finding a version here are good.
Regional depth in one place. Mexican food varies enormously from Sonora to Yucatán, and most English-language books either survey the classics or focus on one region. This one tries to cover all of them. Our guide to regional Mexican cuisines sets out how much the food changes from place to place; this book is a way to cook across that map.
Short, direct recipes. NPR reported that most recipes are about a paragraph long, and that Carrillo deliberately wrote them for American home cooks. Her advice to readers, as NPR quoted it, was simple: “Cook the simpler dishes first.” For an experienced cook that brevity is a strength: you get the ingredients and the method without pages of preamble.
A Mexican author’s view of Mexican food. Many of the classic English-language books on Mexican cooking were written by people who moved to Mexico or studied it from outside. This one is by a chef born and working there, and NPR reported her firm view that the cuisine “is designed for Mexican products”, which is why she favors local fish and ingredients over imports.
Chefs’ menus. The book closes with a section of menus and recipes from Mexican chefs, which Phaidon describes as coming from some of the most prominent names in the country’s cooking.
Drawbacks to weigh first
It does not teach technique. With hundreds of recipes in one volume, each is necessarily concise. If you have never toasted and soaked a dried chile, nixtamalized corn or ground a mole, the book assumes more than it explains. This is the same caution we give in our cookbook guide: it is a book to look things up in, not a course.
Some ingredients take hunting. Publishers Weekly noted that ingredients such as cactus paddles and banana leaves may be hard for American readers to find, while many dishes, such as drunken chicken and stuffed avocados, are doable in a well-stocked kitchen. Spear’s reviewer made the same point more gently: some recipes need special shopping, but the ingredients are clearly explained. In a city with Mexican grocery stores, such as Houston, that is less of a problem than in a small town.
Few step photos. Publishers Weekly describes full-color photos of food, landscapes and people, but with so many recipes, most dishes do not get their own picture. If you learn by seeing each stage, this is not the book for it.
Size and weight. At 704 pages it is a heavy hardback. Plan to keep it on a shelf and copy out the recipe you are cooking, rather than propping it open beside the stove.
Not Tex-Mex. One magazine quoted by Phaidon summed the book up as “Hasta la vista, Tex Mex”. If what you want at home is the cooking of a Texas Mexican restaurant, with combination plates, chili gravy and puffy tacos, look at a Tex-Mex book instead (see the alternatives below).
What published reviewers report in our Mexico cookbook review
Publishers Weekly (October 2014) called it a hefty, appealing collection and concluded: “For those interested in learning how to make authentic Mexican cuisine, Arronte has provided the definitive guide.” Phaidon also quotes the magazine naming it one of its top ten cookbooks of fall 2014 and calling it a “mammoth” collection.
NPR (Carrie Kahn, December 2014) described it as an encyclopedic attempt to document Mexico’s regional cooking, with about 600 recipes, most a paragraph long. The piece included the book’s recipe for chintextle, a smoky Oaxacan paste of dried chiles and dried shrimp.
Spear’s (September 2014) praised its range, saying it presents “a colourful and sophisticated cuisine that we too often simplify to fajitas and tacos”, and concluded: “If you’re looking for Mexico and its culinary history in a book, this is it.”
Phaidon’s page also quotes shorter praise from other outlets and cooks, including Pati Jinich, who called it “a must for any Mexican food lover”. Those are publisher-selected quotes, so we give more weight to the full reviews above. None of the reviews we found claims the recipes are unreliable; the recurring caveats are the brevity and the ingredients.
Alternatives to Mexico: The Cookbook
If the size or the short recipes put you off, these three books cover the gaps. Each one heads one of our other cookbook guides: the best Mexican cookbooks, the best Mexican cookbooks for beginners and the best Tex-Mex cookbook.
1. The Essential Cuisines of Mexico, Diana Kennedy – Learn the Techniques Properly
Where Carrillo’s book gives you breadth, Diana Kennedy gives you depth. Kennedy was born in England in 1923, moved to Mexico in the late 1950s and spent the rest of her life studying its food; she died in Michoacán in 2022, aged 99, according to the Associated Press. Her publisher describes her as the leading authority on Mexican food.
This volume combines three of her best-known books, The Cuisines of Mexico, Mexican Regional Cooking and The Tortilla Book, and adds more than thirty new recipes, according to Clarkson Potter. Her recipes are long where Carrillo’s are short: she explains why a chile is toasted, how a masa should feel and what can go wrong, which is exactly what a cook learning the basics needs.
It is the top pick in our guide to the best Mexican cookbooks, and the natural partner to Carrillo’s book: learn the methods from Kennedy, then use the bigger book to roam.
Why we like it
- Three classic Kennedy books in one volume, plus 30+ new recipes
- Detailed method and the reasons behind it
- Covers tortillas and masa, salsas, moles and regional dishes
- 544-page paperback, lighter to handle than Carrillo’s hardback
Key specifications
| Author | Diana Kennedy |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Clarkson Potter |
| Year | 2009 (this edition) |
| Pages | 544 |
| Format | Paperback |
| Recipes | Not stated (three books plus 30+ new recipes) |
| Focus/region | Classic and regional Mexican cooking |
| Best for | Cooks who want to learn traditional technique |
Why we recommend it
Choose it if you want to understand Mexican cooking rather than just follow recipes. It suits patient cooks who will seek out the right chiles and take their time.
Skip it if you want quick weeknight dinners. Kennedy expects you to toast, grind and simmer the traditional way, and she rarely offers shortcuts.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Teaches technique in depth
- Three classic books in one
- From a widely recognized authority
Cons
- Slow, traditional methods
- Recipe count not published
- Few photographs
2. Mexican Today, Pati Jinich – Everyday Dinners, Old and New
If Mexico: The Cookbook feels like too much book, start here. Pati Jinich was born in Mexico City, hosts the public-television series Pati’s Mexican Table and is resident chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, according to PBS. Her second book, Mexican Today, collects the kind of family cooking she teaches on the show.
The 320-page hardcover from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (2016) offers what its publisher calls easy, generous recipes for everyday meals: classics, regional dishes she brought back such as Miners’ Enchiladas and Drunken Rice with Chicken and Chorizo, and family favorites she has updated. Library records list guacamoles, salsas, tacos, enchiladas and guisados among them. The recipes are written for home cooks, and they explain more than Carrillo’s paragraph-length methods.
It heads our list of the best Mexican cookbooks for beginners, and Jinich herself is quoted by Phaidon praising Carrillo’s book, so the two sit well together: Jinich for learning, Carrillo for exploring later.
Why we like it
- Written by a cooking teacher for home cooks
- Easy, generous everyday recipes, per the publisher
- Guacamoles, salsas, tacos, enchiladas and guisados
- A manageable 320-page hardcover
Key specifications
| Author | Pati Jinich |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |
| Year | 2016 |
| Pages | 320 |
| Format | Hardcover |
| Recipes | Not stated |
| Focus/region | Mexican home cooking |
| Best for | New cooks and weeknight family dinners |
Why we recommend it
Choose it if you are new to Mexican cooking, or want dishes you can make on a weeknight with clear guidance along the way.
Skip it if you already cook Mexican food often and want regional breadth; it is a focused collection of everyday dishes rather than a survey of the country.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Written for everyday home cooking
- Classics plus revived regional dishes
- By a well-known cooking teacher
Cons
- Far fewer recipes than Carrillo
- Limited regional coverage
- Recipe count not published
3. The Tex-Mex Cookbook, Robb Walsh – For Texas-Style Mexican Food
Carrillo’s book is about the food of Mexico, not the Mexican food of Texas. If the dishes you want to cook at home are enchiladas in chili gravy, puffy tacos, fajitas and frozen margaritas, Robb Walsh’s book is the better buy.
Walsh, a former Houston Press restaurant critic, wrote it as a history in recipes: more than 100 recipes and about 150 photographs, many of them archival, according to his own site. Each dish comes with the story of where it came from, which makes it as good to read as to cook from.
It is the top pick in our guide to the best Tex-Mex cookbook, and a sensible second book for anyone who owns Mexico: The Cookbook and misses the flavors of a Texas Mexican restaurant.
Why we like it
- More than 100 Tex-Mex recipes, per the author
- History of each dish alongside the recipe
- About 150 photos, many archival
- By a longtime Houston food writer
Key specifications
| Author | Robb Walsh |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Broadway Books (now listed under Ten Speed Press) |
| Year | 2004 |
| Pages | 268 |
| Format | Paperback |
| Recipes | More than 100 |
| Focus/region | Tex-Mex (Texas Mexican) |
| Best for | Cooks who want restaurant-style Tex-Mex at home |
Why we recommend it
Choose it if Tex-Mex is the food you grew up with or crave, and you want to cook it with some knowledge of its history.
Skip it if you want the regional food of Mexico itself; that is exactly what Carrillo’s book covers and this one does not.
Pros and cons
Pros
- Focused on Tex-Mex classics
- Readable history throughout
- Paperback, easy to keep in the kitchen
Cons
- First published in 2004
- Many photos are historical, not step-by-step
- Narrow in scope by design
Our verdict after this Mexico cookbook review
Mexico: The Cookbook does what it sets out to do. It puts the cooking of the whole country, region by region, into one volume by a Mexican chef, and its reviewers, from Publishers Weekly to NPR, agree on its scope. As a reference for a cook who already knows the basics, it is hard to beat.
It is not a teacher. The recipes are short, some ingredients need tracking down, and most dishes have no photograph. If you are starting out, buy Pati Jinich or Diana Kennedy first and come back to Carrillo when you want to explore. If you already cook, buy it, keep it on the shelf and use it to cook your way across the map.
Questions about Mexico: The Cookbook
How many recipes are in Mexico: The Cookbook?
Sources differ. Phaidon’s product page says more than 700, another Phaidon page says more than 650, and NPR reported about 600. Any of those figures makes it one of the largest Mexican cookbooks in English.
Is Mexico: The Cookbook good for beginners?
Not as a first book. The recipes are concise and assume you know basic techniques. Beginners will get more from Pati Jinich’s Mexican Today or the other books in our guide to Mexican cookbooks for beginners.
Who is Margarita Carrillo Arronte?
A Mexican chef and teacher. Phaidon says she has spent more than 25 years researching, teaching and cooking Mexican cuisine, cooked for Mexico’s Ministry of Agriculture at food festivals abroad from 1996 to 2006, and leads the Slow Food movement in Baja California. She later wrote The Mexican Vegetarian Cookbook for Phaidon.
Does the book include Tex-Mex dishes?
Its focus is the food of Mexico’s regions rather than Tex-Mex. For Texas-style dishes, Robb Walsh’s The Tex-Mex Cookbook is the better choice.
Is there a photo for every recipe?
No. Publishers Weekly describes full-color photos of food, landscapes and people throughout, but with several hundred recipes, many dishes appear without a picture.
For the rest of our cookbook recommendations, see the best Mexican cookbooks. And if tonight is a night off from cooking, see the menu or call to order.