Diana Kennedy, Rick Bayless and the Imagination of ‘Authentic’ Mexican Food

This article studies the ways in which the idea of ‘authenticity’ is built and shaped through cultural discourse in Mexican food. The article engages with the intellectual origins of the concept of ‘authenticity’ and the ideologies it carries, in order to study the ways in which it operates in relation to Mexican food. To achieve this, the article focuses on two foreign cooks who have contributed to the naturalization of ‘authenticity’ as a value in Mexican food, both in Mexico and the United States: Diana Kennedy and Rick Bayless. Through an analysis of their cookbooks, self-fashioning and food ideologies, the article contends that ‘authenticity’ is a problematic cultural construct that highlights the diversity of Mexican cuisine but also disparages Mexican-American communities.