Sabor Judío

The Jewish Mexican Cookbook

By Ilan Stavans, Margaret E. Boyle

With a preface by Leah Koenig; photographs by Ilan Rabchinskey

296 pp., 7 x 10, 53 color plates, bibl., index

  • Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4696-8292-1
    Published: October 2024
  • E-book EPUB ISBN: 978-1-4696-7909-9
    Published: September 2024

Ferris and Ferris Books

Hardcover Available October 2024, but pre-order your copy today!

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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.

About the Authors

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


For more information about Ilan Stavans, visit the Author Page.

Margaret Boyle is director of Latin American, Caribbean, and Latinx Studies at Bowdoin College and associate professor of Romance Languages and Literatures.
For more information about Margaret E. Boyle, visit the Author Page.

Reviews

"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

"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

"¡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

"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

"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

"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