1. The preeminent English-language authority on Mexican cuisine, Kennedy was known for her nine books on the subject, including The Cuisines of Mexico, which changed how Americans view Mexican cuisine.
47 Facts About Diana Kennedy
1. 2.
Diana Kennedy's cookbooks are based on her fifty years of travelling in Mexico, interviewing and learning from several types of cooks from virtually every region of the nation.
3.
Diana Kennedy received numerous awards for her work, including the Order of the Aztec Eagle from the Mexican government, and was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire.
4.
Diana Kennedy's father was a salesman, and her mother a teacher.
5.
Diana Kennedy did not go on to university because of World War II and instead, at age 19, joined the Women's Timber Corps: a civilian organisation that took over forestry duties from men who had gone off to fight.
6.
Diana Kennedy did not like cutting down trees, so she was assigned to measuring tree trunks instead.
7.
In 1953, Diana Kennedy emigrated to Canada, where she lived for three years while doing a number of jobs, including running a film library and selling Wedgewood china.
8.
Diana Kennedy had no children, but two step-daughters from Paul's first marriage.
9.
In Mexico, Diana Kennedy fell in love with the food, and spent the rest of her career working for its preservation and promotion.
10.
Diana Kennedy was noted for her brusque, no-nonsense demeanour, having pulled out tape recorders when police have tried to get bribes from her on her Mexican travels.
11.
Diana Kennedy visited every state in Mexico, and used diverse forms of transportation, from buses, to donkeys to her Nissan pickup truck with no power steering.
12.
Diana Kennedy travelled to isolated areas of Mexico to visit markets and cooks to ask about cooking ingredients and methods.
13.
Diana Kennedy died at her home on 24 July 2022, at the age of 99.
14.
Diana Kennedy came to appreciate that recipes varied from region to region, travelling with her husband when he was on assignment, and he would collect recipes when she could not accompany him.
15.
Diana Kennedy began researching documentation on Mexican cuisine, and credited the work of Josefina Velazquez de Leon for her having been a pioneer, who had done similar work collecting recipes by visiting church groups.
16.
Diana Kennedy's focus became the food that was not documented, such as that found in villages, markets and homes, eventually to preserve native ingredients and traditional recipes being lost as Mexicans move from rural areas to urban centers.
17.
Diana Kennedy began to share what she learned informally among immigrants and her husband's colleagues when they came to Mexico.
18.
In 1969, Diana Kennedy began to teach classes in Mexican cooking in her apartment in the Upper West Side, with the encouragement of Craig Claiborne.
19.
Diana Kennedy's classes focused on the most traditional cooking techniques and ingredients.
20.
Diana Kennedy had the most success with this since the 1970s, when cooking schools grew in popularity.
21.
Diana Kennedy did not have experience writing, but after Fran McCullough, poetry editor at Harper and Row at the time, took one of her classes, she offered to help Kennedy put the book together and eventually collaborated on Kennedy's first five books.
22.
Diana Kennedy's inexperience led to rewriting the book several times but the result was The Cuisines of Mexico, published in 1972.
23.
Diana Kennedy later published eight other volumes on Mexican cooking, a number of which have been translated into Spanish.
24.
Diana Kennedy did not consider herself a writer, but rather as someone who documented what she saw in about fifty years of travelling Mexico, including remote areas, to talk to cooks of all kinds.
25.
Diana Kennedy financed her own book research and travels, often sleeping in her old Nissan truck.
26.
Diana Kennedy preferred the food of central and southern Mexico, which is more complex and varied.
27.
Diana Kennedy registered a wide variety of edible plants, and included more exotic recipes such as those using brains, iguanas, insects and even whole animals such as oxen.
28.
Diana Kennedy regularly interviewed and cooked with a variety of cooks, but especially those from rural areas, cooking for family and friends.
29.
Diana Kennedy even apprenticed in a bakery in Mexico City to learn the all-male trade.
30.
Diana Kennedy's work made her one of the foremost authorities on Mexican cuisine, not only in authentic ingredients and techniques, but the loss and disuse of various ingredients as Mexico shifts from a primarily rural to primarily urban society.
31.
Diana Kennedy starred in a 26-part television series on Mexican cooking for The Learning Channel.
32.
Diana Kennedy was an influence in the development of Mexican cooking in the United States and on chefs such as Rick Bayless.
33.
Diana Kennedy taught Paula Wolfert, who recommended her to her editor.
34.
However, Diana Kennedy dismissed most chefs doing Mexican food during her time because they had not done the travelling and research that she had and innovated rather than preserved original methods.
35.
Diana Kennedy criticized chefs who waste food and who encourage the unnecessary use of plastic, foil, and other items that only get thrown in the trash.
36.
Diana Kennedy did not like culinary writers who do not live in Mexico, but question her authority because of her ethnicity.
37.
Diana Kennedy was careful to credit the people who have shared their understanding of Mexican regional foods with her, including, for example, anthropologist and restaurateur Raquel Torres Cerdan.
38.
Diana Kennedy's influence was not limited to the United States as her work was very well received in Mexico.
39.
Diana Kennedy received numerous awards in this country including the Order of the Aztec Eagle, which is the highest honour awarded to foreigners in the country.
40.
Diana Kennedy permanently returned to Mexico in 1976, initially living in Mexico City.
41.
Diana Kennedy's homestead was on a forested hill at the end of a long dirt road, and could be reached only by pickup or four-wheel drive.
42.
Diana Kennedy stated in My Mexico that she wanted a house built of local materials and a lifestyle similar to that of her neighbors.
43.
Diana Kennedy's cooking spaces consist of an outdoor space with wood-fired grills and adobe beehive-shaped ovens, and an indoor kitchen, which she called her "laboratory".
44.
Diana Kennedy's bedroom is upstairs, which opens to her study, filled with books and papers about, and with windows on three sides to look out over the gardens towards the mountains.
45.
Diana Kennedy had a greenhouse to grow various edible plants, such as herbs and even coffee.
46.
Diana Kennedy argued against the use of genetically modified seeds, excessive use of packaging and use of bleach for white linens in hotels and restaurants.
47.
Diana Kennedy was a common name among foodies in the United States for decades, but did not receive notice in her native England until Prince Charles came to Quinta Diana in 2002, to eat and to appoint her a Member of the Order of the British Empire.