Food Stories of Early California is topic on February 10
Join the Menlo Park Library online on Monday, February 10, from 6:00 to 7:00 pm to learn about the first Mexican-American cookbook published in the U.S. (1898), and learn how to make a delicious rice pudding! Register via Zoom.
Culinary historian Maite Gomez-Rejón will introduce you to Encarnación Pinedo (1848-1902), who was born into an elite Californio family who suffered the loss of land and privilege as a result of the U.S.-Mexico War (1846-1848), but maintained their memories of a romantic Spanish past.
In 1898, Pinedo published El cocinero español (The Spanish Cook)—California’s first Spanish-language cookbook, and one of the most important Mexican cookbooks in the United States.
Encarnación’s Kitchen, the modern version of El cocinero español, posits: “Food, as Encarnación understood, can be a seductively delicious catalyst for social understanding, change, and even rebellious protest.”
Get ready to cook along with us, because Maite will show you how you can make Encarnación’s rice pudding in your own home kitchen. Download the recipe.
