Sabor Judío: The Jewish Mexican Cookbook

Biographical Note:
Ilan Stavans, a leading Jewish Mexican scholar and critic, is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College. Margaret Boyle is director of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies at Bowdoin College and associate professor of Romance Languages and Literatures.

Brief Description:
"Sabor Judâio celebrates the delicious fusion of two culinary traditions: Jewish and Mexican. Written with joy and verve, Ilan Stavans and Margaret Boyle's lavishly illustrated cookbook demonstrates how cooking and eating connect the Jewish-Mexicans across places and generations. Featuring one hundred deeply personal recipes enjoyed by Mexican Jews around the world, the book is organized by meal -desayuno (breakfast), almuerzo (lunch), and cena (dinner)- and also includes dishes made for Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Hanukkah, Shavuot, and other holidays. Sabor Judâio isn't only a cookbook; it is also a vibrant history of Jewish immigration to Mexico from 1492 to the present. It explains how flavors and dishes evolved in Mexican and Jewish kitchens and how they fused into a distinct cuisine, mainly by the labor of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi, and converso women. This cookbook is the product of two award-winning, internationally known Jewish Mexican writers and foodies who spent a decade gathering recipes and personal narratives from Jewish Mexican households. The result is a dynamic and delicious array of recipes and experiences, infusing important cultural heritage into this essential culinary record"--

Commendation Quotes:
An instant classic and more than a cookbook--it is a critical portrait of a community. An absolutely new and stellar contribution."--Michael W. Twitty, author of Koshersoul

Commendation Quotes:
An enthralling insight into cooking in the extraordinarily mixed and vibrant Jewish Mexican community. This engaging book makes use of local produce and melds Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi styles with the flavors of Mexico."--Claudia Roden, food writer

Commendation Quotes:
This is the book I have long been waiting for! With insight and knowledge, Ilan Stavans and Margaret Boyle show the way Jewish food travels around the world with its people. These delicious dishes weave together ingredients, traditions, and techniques and shine a light on what happens when people enrich each other's tables. Cheers to the incredible authors."--Pati Jinich, author of Treasures of the Mexican Table and host of the Emmy-nominated series Pati's Mexican Table

Commendation Quotes:
Sabor Judio is as much an addition to the serious chef's library as it is to the kitchens of everyday cooks searching for exciting and comforting flavors. Its pages are proof that Mexican cuisine is multifaceted and shaped by the global diaspora. It has been a long while since the recipes of a book have charmed me with both originality and a deep respect for historical tradition. Fabulous!"--Sandra A. Gutierrez, award-winning author of Latinisimo

Commendation Quotes:
Sabor Judio is a beautiful tribute to the Jewish Mexican community known as La Comunidad. It is also an important history of a little-known cuisine, a remarkable cross-fertilization of Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Mexican culinary cultures. The recipes burst with exciting Mexican flavors--think chilaquiles with matzah instead of tortilla strips, poblanos stuffed with guacamole and gribenes, and latkes with mole--and yet the spirit of the Jewish table remains intact. What a treasure!"--Darra Goldstein, founding editor of Gastronomica

Commendation Quotes:
With prose as delicious as the recipes it features, Stavans and Boyle have given us a treasure. This is a cookbook of storytelling at its best. I was salivating from the first page to the last. You don't have to be Jewish or Mexican to be inspired by the layers of meaning and flavor."--Niki Russ, fourth-generation owner of Russ & Daughters

Commendation Quotes:
This is an exquisite book, showcasing the ingenious ways in which ancient Jewish dietary traditions have been reinvented in Mexico. Ilan Stavans and Margaret E. Boyle are not only superb chefs but also invaluable ethnographers. This menu will now travel to other diasporas, adopting new elements. Buen apetito."--Angelina Muniz-Huberman, author of Dreaming of Sefarad and recipient of Mexico's National Prize for Arts and Sciences

Commendation Quotes:
This excellent cookbook builds a bridge between the Old World and the New by connecting every recipe with a story, anecdote, or experience of a Jewish community member in the past and present."--Sandra Aguilar-Rodriguez, Moravian University

Commendation Quotes:
¡Oy guey! A fabulous compendium of memory, easy-to-follow recipes and visibility for La Comunidad that will find a welcoming home in kitchens of all religions and nationalities."--Gustavo Arellano

Commendation Quotes:
"An instant classic and more than a cookbook--it is a critical portrait of a community. An absolutely new and stellar contribution."--Michael W. Twitty, author of Koshersoul

Commendation Quotes:
"An enthralling insight into cooking in the extraordinarily mixed and vibrant Jewish Mexican community. This engaging book makes use of local produce and melds Ashkenazi, Sephardi, and Mizrahi styles with the flavors of Mexico."--Claudia Roden, food writer

Commendation Quotes:
"This is the book I have long been waiting for! With insight and knowledge, Ilan Stavans and Margaret Boyle show the way Jewish food travels around the world with its people. These delicious dishes weave together ingredients, traditions, and techniques and shine a light on what happens when people enrich each other's tables. Cheers to the incredible authors."--Pati Jinich, author of Treasures of the Mexican Table and host of the Emmy-nominated series Pati's Mexican Table

Commendation Quotes:
"¡Oy güey! A fabulous compendium of memory, easy-to-follow recipes and visibility for La Comunidad that will find a welcoming home in kitchens of all religions and nationalities."--Gustavo Arellano

Commendation Quotes:
" Sabor Judío is as much an addition to the serious chef's library as it is to the kitchens of everyday cooks searching for exciting and comforting flavors. Its pages are proof that Mexican cuisine is multifaceted and shaped by the global diaspora. It has been a long while since the recipes of a book have charmed me with both originality and a deep respect for historical tradition. Fabulous!"--Sandra A. Gutierrez, award-winning author of Latinísimo

Commendation Quotes:
" Sabor Judío is a beautiful tribute to the Jewish Mexican community known as La Comunidad. It is also an important history of a little-known cuisine, a remarkable cross-fertilization of Ashkenazic, Sephardic, and Mexican culinary cultures. The recipes burst with exciting Mexican flavors--think chilaquiles with matzah instead of tortilla strips, poblanos stuffed with guacamole and gribenes, and latkes with mole--and yet the spirit of the Jewish table remains intact. What a treasure!"--Darra Goldstein, founding editor of Gastronomica

Commendation Quotes:
"With prose as delicious as the recipes it features, Stavans and Boyle have given us a treasure. This is a cookbook of storytelling at its best. I was salivating from the first page to the last. You don't have to be Jewish or Mexican to be inspired by the layers of meaning and flavor."--Niki Russ, fourth-generation owner of Russ & Daughters

Review Quotes:

"The many appealing dishes in Sabor Judio: The Jewish Mexican Cookbook have been collected by two Jewish Mexican scholars . . . [and features] recipes [that] come from good cooks they found in many communities, their stories and the history of Jewish Mexican cooking shape this book."--Boston Globe

"If you're an adventurous eater, these recipes will get you rethinking holiday menus as well as what you're making for dinner tonight."--The Forward

"The dish-es includ-ed in this spe-cial vol-ume reflect the ways our cul-ture and tradi-tions con-stant-ly adapt and evolve, trans-formed through con-tact with others."--Jewish Book Council

"A thoughtful and mouthwatering representation of this hybrid cuisine."--J. The Jewish News of Northern California

"A fascinating cultural mashup of a cookbook from two Jewish-Mexican scholars . . . The cookbook is obviously a treasure trove for cooks of Jewish and/or Mexican backgrounds, but also for culinary explorers and adventurers of all stripes."--Portland Press Herald

Best Cookbooks of 2024--CBC Radio-Canada's The Current

"Enticing . . . Sabor Judío digs into the world of Jewish-Mexican food, a fascinating cuisine that dates back some 500 years, when Sephardic Jews fled the Spanish Inquisition."--Edible Boston

"Basta contemplar la portada para que se nos abra el apetito."--Enlace Judío

Translation: "Just looking at the cover whets our appetite."--Enlace Judío

"An instant classic and more than a cookbook--it is a critical portrait of a community. An absolutely new and stellar contribution."--Michael W. Twitty, author of Koshersoul

"The[se] recipes, accompanied by personal histories, recount an aspect of the Jewish diaspora. It is the story of the history of Jewish migration to Mexico in miniature, movement often spurred by poverty and persecution."--Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Sabor Judío celebrates the delicious fusion of two culinary traditions, Jewish and Mexican. Written with joy and verve, Ilan Stavans and Margaret Boyle's lavishly illustrated cookbook demonstrates how cooking and eating connect Jewish Mexicans across places and generations. Featuring 100 deeply personal recipes enjoyed by Jewish Mexicans around the world, the book is organized by meal--desayuno (breakfast), comida (lunch), and cena (dinner)--and also includes dishes made for Shabbat, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Passover, Hanukkah, Shavuot, and other holidays.

Sabor Judío isn't only a cookbook; it is also a vibrant history of Jewish immigration to Mexico from 1492 to the present. It explains how flavors and dishes evolved in Mexican and Jewish kitchens and how they fused into a distinct cuisine, mainly by the labor of Ashkenazi, Sephardic, Mizrahi, and converso women. This cookbook is the product of two award-winning, internationally known Jewish Mexican writers and foodies who spent a decade gathering recipes and personal narratives from Jewish Mexican households. The result is a dynamic and delicious array of recipes and experiences, infusing important cultural heritage into this essential culinary record.

Contributor Bio:Stavans, Ilan
Ilan Stavans, a leading Jewish Mexican scholar and critic, is Lewis-Sebring Professor of Humanities and Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College.

Contributor Bio:Boyle, Margaret E
Margaret Boyle is director of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies at Bowdoin College and associate professor of Romance Languages and Literatures.