UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization included traditional Mexican cuisine on its list of world cultural treasures worth preserving two years ago. A group of Mexican Academics have put together the first cookbook to be included on Unesco’s Intangible Cultural Heritage list. Latino USA’s Brenda Salinas talks to the book’s publisher, Margarita de Orellana from Artes de Mexico, and visits Chef Joe Quintana at his New York restaurant, Rosa Mexicano, to get a taste for what all the buzz is about. On the menu, the caviar of corn: huitlacoche crêpes.

Photo by Latino USA

Margarita de Orellana is the director of the Mexican publishing house Artes de México. She studied Communications at the Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and Cinematography in L’Université de Vincennes in Paris, where she lived for almost a decade.  She also has a Phd. In Contemporary Compartive History from the École des Hautes Études en Science Sociales.

Chef Joe Quintana is the Executive Chef at Rosa Mexicano in Union Square, New York City. The New York native studied at Queensborough Community College.

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