Her name is Diana Kennedy. She wrote the first book I ever read about Mexican cuisine. It is still, in my opinion, the best book ever written about Mexican cuisine. It started a passionate love affair I have with the food of Mexico that continues today and, today, I learned a lot more about the fascinating woman who wrote it.
Four years ago, Diana Kennedy, published her ninth book on Mexican cuisine. It’s title was Nothing Fancy. This year, filmmaker Elizabeth Carroll used the same title for the feature-length documentary about this five-foot-tall fireball and, this afternoon, I watched it.
In 1953, 30-year-old Diana Southwood left her home in the southeast of England to emigrate to Canada. Four years later, on a holiday to Haiti, she met Paul P. Kennedy, a correspondent for The New York Times in, among other places, Mexico. A few months later, the two moved in together in Mexico City and, shortly after, they were married.
Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy takes us to her home in Zitácuaro, about 300 km west of my snowbird home, San Miguel de Allende, where, since the 1970’s, she has lived “off the grid” growing the hard-to-find ingredients that some of the recipes she has collected demand. She refers to her garden as “my jewel box” and the chiles, the oranges, the onions, the nopales “are my jewels”.
It’s at Casa Diana that she welcomes aspiring chefs to her “boot camp” cooking school and gallivants around in her beat up old Nissan truck cursing careless dogs and careful drivers alike.
“If her enthusiasm were not beautiful, it would border on mania.” said Craig Claiborne in the intro to that first book on Mexican cuisine that she wrote and I read.
What I’ve always liked most about Diana Kennedy is her generosity in recognizing and praising the authenticity, the origins and creators of the cuisine she has spent decades studying. Never once do I remember her using the first person singular in a recipe and I can’t think of any other cookbook author that I could say that about. Her forte is research and no other cookbook writer has ever been as hungry for knowledge as Diana Kennedy.
A good food documentary makes you hungry and, after seeing all of the what we call “food porn” shots in Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy, I was starving for “nothing fancy”, just some very simple, very fresh guacamole, mostly chopped avocado “but not like baby food” as Diana says as she pounds the molcajete in her kitchen.
“How spicy are the cascabels” someone asks her as they prepare a dish in one of her classes. She answers, “If you don’t wash your hands right now you might go to the john and, by golly, you will know.”
Diana Kennedy doesn’t walk, she strides. Diana Kennedy doesn’t talk, she proclaims. Diana Kennedy is a character and characters make for good biographies and good documentaries.
“One is never satisfied. There’s so much more I would like to do”, she says. Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy leaves you wanting much more Mexican Cuisine and much more of the living legend.
Diana Kennedy: Nothing Fancy is available on iTunes, YouTube, Amazon Prime and Google Play but not necessarily in every country where you might try to watch it. Runtime is 73 minutes.
Thanks for making sure that everyone with any interest in Mexican food (and they wouldn’t be reading this blog if that wasn’t the case) knows that this documentary is out there. It is very well done, and captures the essence of this woman and her life. Unique personalities allow special people to not care whether you like them or not, to just be themselves, and she is a prime example of that type of character. The views of her house and garden capture the simple life that she embraced many years ago. Really glad that Ms. Carroll took the time to document her life and that you have shared that gift with all of your readers.
Muchas gracias! – what a dame! thanks for bringing this to my attention while I sit in Whistler dreaming of SMA and simple Mexican food – oh and how about a real margarita! I am heading back at the end of this month and will be able to pick up my really dog eared copy of Diana’s fabulous cook book and cook my husband who is still there a really traditional meal – my taste buds are tingling as I think of it.
Stay safe and well and healthy in these strange covid times
Abrazos
Hi Don
Perhaps you weren’t there but she came to San Miguel several years ago and spoke a café there. I think she was interested in promoting her book but more than that she just gave a very warm and opinionated talk about her life.and Mexican food I en joyed it and like you own several of her books;my friend was a little put off by Diana’s harsh comments about some food author, which didn’t bother me because I felt she ,Diana ,Was en titled.and knowledgeable .
Thank You for the informative piece
Diana Kennedy was guest of honor at the San Miguel Film Festival last year, along with the filmmaker and a rough cut of the documentary. She also spoke at Sylvestre’s and was guest at a dinner at The Restaurant.
She was funny, candid, salty, and indefatigable- no question went unanswered!
I wish I’d picked up her book when you did! Thanks for the nice write up. She is a global treasure!
Are you back in SMA now?
Not yet. But missing it a lot.
The first time I used her method for making Mexican Rice, there was a lot of eye rolling going on in my kitchen. But once I tasted it, never can I go back to the two cups of liquid and one cup of rice in a rice cooker. It’s learning and in my case relearning to do things the way that tradition mandates.
Thank you, Diana.
Which is the book you think is the best ever written on Mexican cuisine?
It has to be her “The Essential Cuisines of Mexico”. Only Rick Bayless has come close.
Going strong @ 97 with s wonderful history and acting as a young kid! Keep it up and stay well! When you come to SMA call me! Gerry 4151526298
Just so you know, Zitacuaro, Michoacán, is almost straight south of the city of Queretaro as a crow flies, and is not just west of SMA.
I was lucky to meet Dame Kennedy in SMA about 4 years ago, and grateful to have her sign my1972 edition of The Cuisines of Mexico. Her recipe for Salsa Verde certainly would quality as “ nothing fancy “.