Ama: A Modern Tex-Mex Kitchen

by Josef Centeno, Betty Hallock, Ren Fuller (Photographer)

Overview

An Eating the West Award Finalist 2020

Tex-Mex is a delicious, irreverent cuisine that combines the deep traditions of Texan and Mexican cooking. Think meaty stews, breakfast tacos, and tres leches cake. Home cooks will learn how to make them all—in addition to crunchy salads, slow-cooked meats, and fresh cocktails—in this collection of more than 100 recipes from San Antonio native and Los Angeles chef and restauranteur Josef Centeno. Organized into chapters by type of food—including breakfast, vegetables, main courses, desserts, and a super nacho party—this is down-home cooking and grilling at its most inspiring. Presented in a colorful package with more than 100 food and atmospheric photos, this cookbook is a hands-on winner for anyone who loves big flavors, casual parties, and firing up the grill.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781452156859
Publisher:	Chronicle Books
Publication date:	06/22/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	472
Sales rank:	1,059,092
File size:	37 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Betty Hallock is a journalist and food writer, and former deputy food editor of the Los Angeles Times. She is the coauthor of Bäco and lives in Los Angeles.
Josef Centeno is the chef-owner of the Centeno Group, which includes the award-winning restaurants Bäco Mercat, Bar Amá, and more. He is the coauthor of the cookbook Bäco and lives in Los Angeles.
Ren Fuller is a Los Angeles–based food and lifestyle photographer.

Editorial Reviews

10/01/2019

With the ascent of the many regional Mexican cuisines, Tex-Mex has typically been left far behind. In this second book by Centeno (Baco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles), the aim is to re-create family dishes from the author's childhood in San Antonio, where his grandfather started Centeno Market, while adding a few modern Southern California touches. The book, coauthored by food journalist Hallock, leads off with a larder section covering homemade spice blends, salsas, pickles, and sauces. There's also a chapter on breakfast, two sections of main dishes, and one on vegetables, appetizers, and dessert. The recipes are well written, designed with home cooks in mind. One design quibble: recipe titles are laid out vertically on the left side of each page, so all recipes on the right-hand side of the book have their titles somewhat obscured in the crease. Otherwise, gorgeous photos of most dishes are found throughout. VERDICT If you are in the market for some delicious and authentic Tex-Mex cooking, this collection would be an optimal place to start.—Susan Hurst, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH

Library Journal

★ 10/07/2019

“The only thing authentic about Tex-Mex cuisine is that it isn’t authentic,” writes Centeno (Bäco), the chef-owner of L.A. restaurants Bäco Mercat and Bar Amá, in this superb take on the cuisine. He proves his point with the inclusion of such classics as tortilla soup; chicken-fried steak with bacon gravy; Tex-Mex roast turkey, which involves brining the bird in a combination of beer, dark brown sugar, chiles and herbs, then basting with chile butter; and a decadent take on the classic fried ice cream—a vanilla bean semifreddo cloaked in crushed cereal and fried, then bathed in a dulce de leche sauce. Imaginative riffs include turmeric-finger chicken fajitas; beef cheek barbacoa enchiladas; lobster diablo, which incorporates crema, hot sauce, cheddar and Monterey Jack cheeses; and corn quesadillas with poblano, cilantro, and greens onions that gets a creamy boost from buffalo mozzarella, paired with a sharp white cheddar. Centeno’s artful and accessible mix of high and low techniques (Mom’s Rice is a riff on red rice that gets a boost from V8; Velveeta is a key component in his queso) emphasize flavor over pretentiousness. Anyone thinking of taking a stab at Tex-Mex would do well to pick this up. (Oct.)

Publishers Weekly

"What happens when Tex-Mex finds a home in Southern California? In Josef Centeno's new cookbook, "Amá ", the results are sunny and delicious, from a vegan, cashew-based "queso" built on the flavors of charred onion, garlic and green chile, to a simple halved ruby red grapefruit, broiled with a topping of butter and piloncillo sugar, just like his auntie used to do." - New York Times, A Best Fall Cookbook of 2019

From the Publisher