The New Southern-Latino Table: Recipes That Bring Together the Bold and Beloved Flavors of Latin America & the American South

The New Southern-Latino Table: Recipes That Bring Together the Bold and Beloved Flavors of Latin America & the American South

by Sandra A. Gutierrez (University of North Carolina Press, 320 pp., $30)

In the American South, the juxtaposition of traditional Southern cooking and the cuisines of Latin America has developed quietly over time. It's an inevitable culinary fusion with roots in the early 20th century when Mexican workers introduced tamales to African-American cooks who adapted them into the similar but different "hot tamales" of the Mississippi Delta.

Sandra Gutierrez, a North Carolina food journalist and cooking teacher born in the U.S. and raised in Guatemala, does a terrific job of capturing the spirit and flavors of both Southern and Latino cuisines, exploring the interesting territory where they happily intersect.

She makes the important point that the term "Latino" has little meaning outside the U.S. "We come in all different colors and have very different food histories. ... The Southern-Latino movement is ... catapulted by immigrants whose culinary contributions are as multi­cul­tural and multifaceted as they are." And she reminds us that both Southern and Latin American cuisines evolved from a mix of indigenous peoples, European settlers, and African slaves.

In these 150 recipes, Gutierrez incorporates elements from various Latin American populations that now inhabit the South. She emphasizes common ingredients such as tomatoes, corn, pork, beans, sugar, squash, potatoes, and nuts, as well as shared cooking methods of barbecuing, braising, roasting, and deep-frying. And do these fusion recipes ever work! Grits with roasted poblanos, collard green tamales in pimiento salsa, chile-cheese biscuits with avocado butter, peach and bourbon tres leches cake, sweet corn ice cream with praline sauce – all complementary flavors that reflect an important aspect of the New South.