La Cocina de Pepina: 15° Aniversario

This collection of recipes from a restaurant in Cartagena, Colombia, pays tribute to its founder, María Josefina Yances Guerra, a former sociologist who focused on traditional ingredients and foodways, in particular those of the Sinu, an ethnic group whose identity goes back more than two thousand years.

With text in both Spanish and in English, La Cocina de Pepina focuses more on Mariajose, as she is called here, and her insights than on her recipes, although there are some thirty dishes, plus some cocktails.

Chapters address Mariajose herself and her status as something of a culture hero in Colombia, as well as the country’s culinary history and its archetypal foods and dishes. We learn about everyday meals, celebration feasts, and other cooks who carry on Mariajose’s mission of preserving traditional foodways.

Passionate and detailed.

Hardcover. Color photographs throughout. In Spanish and English.