inherited and that allows them to cook such a special dish. Nonetheless, I have found that when they speak of the recipe itself, they often describe it in general terms and ‘forget' to mention what they consider either key ingredients or steps, so that relatives and friends always fail to replicate the recipe at their homes. An important part of the gastronomic performance is to serve the food properly, to consume it willingly, and to openly display one's satisfaction with the high quality of the meal by consuming more than one serving of each dish, later requesting leftovers to take home or, in some instances, asking permission to return the following day to procure an additional share of the dish's leftovers.
In this food-centered context, as an anthropologist, I gained access not only due to my curiosity or the authority of my ‘science'. I found an advantage in displaying culinary abilities of my own, which were on a par with those of domestic cooks, and in showing an ample appreciation for food in general—and for Yucatecan food in particular. Because the nature of my social interaction was mediated by food, I avoid referring to the people who spoke, cooked, and ate with me as ‘informants'. Food was a social binder that allowed me to see everybody as subjects and not as information-giving objects. The approach of talking about food, cooking a meal, and sharing it with others requires a negotiation of aesthetic, ethical, political, and culinary values that the objectification of individuals as informants usually leaves unexamined. During the years that I lived outside Yucatán, I appropriated the skills to cook a few Indian, Thai, and Italian dishes for my friends. I also cooked Yucatecan dishes for Yucatecan and non-Yucatecan friends abroad, thus gaining acceptance as a culinary interlocutor who could ask questions and, every so often, even obtain a ‘secret' ingredient or be taught a secret procedure for special dishes (as I could also share some learned secrets of my own). When cooking and eating in company, whether I was seen as the group's resident anthropologist or simply as another friend, family members and friends, motivated by the meal, spent a long time talking about their favorite dishes, the ingredients they like best, the ones they would omit in their cooking, their favorite cooks for different meals, their favorite restaurants and food places, and their own skills in cooking. Thus, performing anthropological work at these family reunions and at gatherings of friends was, and continues to be, an enjoyable task.
The fact that Yucatecans live in a multicultural society also fosters the exchange of information. As an anthropologist, I hosted and was hosted by people from different cultural traditions who were often willing to share their knowledge, informing others about their culinary techniques, about where to find fine ingredients or cooking appliances, and about their experiences seeking good restaurants in different neighborhoods of the city. Friends would sit and long for the meals that they used to have in the past or in their places of origin. It is also in these contexts that people become more explicit about the boundaries of their own culinary fields. People would make remarks in confidence, such as “in Yucatán we do not use—” or “in Oaxaca they add—whereas here we—” or “in Indian cooking they heavily douse their food with—.” In these contexts, people do not mind having an anthropologist at the table. The anthropologist cooks every so often and eats food with the others as well.
During my research, restaurateurs proved to be a different matter. In speaking with restaurant managers and chefs, I found them to be more secretive about the cooking techniques and ingredients used in their establishments. Public health concerns, tax issues, and trade secrets were looked on as requiring circumspection or protection, and these concerns constituted barriers to gaining access to restaurant kitchens. Some restaurateurs claim that a particular dish was created in their own kitchen. Thus, they treat their recipe as a trade secret to ensure their economic success. They were willing to speak with me at the table, sharing a special dish or drinking a coffee, and they were often generous when narrating the trajectory of their restaurants, their importance, or their awards. However, they turned silent and reserved when the conversation shifted to issues related to the cooks, their kitchen staff, and the source of the ingredients they use. Restaurant managers were not impressed by my cooking abilities and knowledge. Their main concern was that no publication should impair the public image and thus the economic success of their restaurants. In contrast, there were some instances during conversations when some chefs were willing to tell me their secret for preparing a dish, often only after I had revealed my own secret for another recipe.
For this volume I interviewed restaurant managers and chefs, as well as domestic cooks, mainly in Mérida but also in Valladolid and some former haciendas around the city of Mérida. The descriptions that illustrate this book are all based on my participation, as both host and guest, in numerous meals among acquaintances, friends, and relatives, as well as in larger celebrations that involved different degrees of commensality. Many conversations on food were informal and unstructured, and some were triggered spontaneously by the experiences being shared. I was invited to see other friends (or their relatives) cook, and three of my licenciatura students (Guadalupe Cruz Flores, Ashanti Rosado Novelo, and María José Quintal Ávila) at the Autonomous University of Yucatán fulfilled their social service obligations by conducting a short survey on economic kitchens in a neighborhood located in the north of Mérida. Because some informants asked me not to reveal their names or the names of their businesses, I use pseudonyms in some instances (which I note in the text), while in other instances I keep the actual name of public persons and restaurants that are also public by nature.
In my travels to Mexico City, Guadalajara, Oaxaca, and Argentina and to different cities in Canada, the US, and Italy, I have sought to explore the local knowledge on Mexican food and the food of Mexican regions, particularly that of Yucatán—when and wherever it is known. These different experiences have allowed me to become aware of certain global-local connections and the different ways in which Mexican national cuisine is understood by both Mexicans and foreigners.
The Structure of the Book
The chapters of this book are structured to facilitate the understanding of Yucatecan gastronomy as a political and cultural construct that has become important in the fashioning of Yucatecan identities vis-à-vis nationalist, homogenizing cultural colonialism. In chapter 1, I examine the historical narrative that has founded an oppositional regional identity that is performed against Mexican culture but, at the same time, is open to cosmopolitan influences. This context has allowed the creation of a culinary and gastronomic tradition that is both different from Mexican cuisine and also connected to the world at large.
In chapter 2, I discuss the constitution of the urban foodscape and its explosion in Mérida. This rapid expansion connects the local to the global transformation of the marketing of foods and forces Yucatecan restaurateurs to establish, as clearly as possible, the boundaries of Yucatecan gastronomy that must, perforce, secure its own niche in both the local and global markets of ‘ethnic' foods.
In chapter 3, I propose that there is in place a social and cultural process of naturalization of taste that supports the territorialization of Yucatecan culinary culture. That is, despite some intra-regional variations and differences, there are mechanisms for the repetition, standardization, and routinization of culinary practices and ingredients that make the preference for certain flavors, aromas, colors, and textures an integral part of the values that define Yucatecan culture. These mechanisms favor the co-extension of a culinary culture with the territory occupied by Yucatecans and, by allowing experimentation, playfulness, and inventiveness, opens the culinary field to influences from other cuisines.
In chapters 4 and 5, I analyze the constitution and institution of the gastronomic field. In chapter 4, I discuss the importance of cookbooks in the bifurcation of the culinary and gastronomic fields and show how their dynamism is related to their intersection with post-national and post-colonial power structures. Cookbooks, I argue, have become contributory minor texts that are both instruments and vehicles in the constitution of the gastronomic field. At the same time, because of their inscription in a post-national, post-colonial,