Preparation Authority tier 1

Las Tres Culturas: Pre-Columbian, Colonial, and Contemporary

Mexican cooking is the product of the most dramatic culinary synthesis in history — the collision of two complete culinary worlds in 1519. The pre-Columbian tradition (Aztec, Mayan, Zapotec, Mixtec) brought corn, chilli, chocolate, tomato, squash, beans, and vanilla; the Spanish brought pork, chicken, rice, dairy, wheat, sugar, and the complete repertoire of medieval Iberian-Moorish cooking. The synthesis produced something entirely new — a cuisine that is specifically Mexican rather than either Aztec or Spanish.

Overview

The three cultural layers of Mexican cooking — each contributing specific techniques and ingredients.

Source

MEXICAN CULINARY TRADITION — DEEP EXTRACTION

Cross-Cuisine Parallels

Peruvian Nikkei and Chifa (same colonial synthesis — Japanese and Chinese influence on Peruvian base), Thai cooking (same synthesis of multiple cultural influences into a unified tradition), Moroccan