The 652 page “little book” that started it all….

Just like many Peruvians families in the 1970s, Cocina Peruana por Misia Peta was always in our kitchen. It was carefully kept in a cupboard and watching my mother reach for it signaled a special meal  would soon sprout from its pages.

My mother and father were originally from Peru and emigrated to the United States in 1959. Although I was born and raised in a homogeneous suburb in Michigan, the food we ate at home was mostly Peruvian or Peruvian-American.  Every now and again my mother would make us hamburgers or hotdogs, but it was the Anticuchos, Tallarines Verde, and Papas a la Huancayina we secretly craved. A Saturday morning filled with the scent of a Lomo Saltado or Empanadas, promised to be a happy day for all of us. My mother’s Ceviche even made me eat seafood I wouldn’t have touched otherwise.

When my grandmother would come to visit us from Peru and point to it telling me that it was “her cookbook,” I failed to grasp that she had not only given it to my mother, she had written it as well! Sadly, my Spanish was extremely limited back then.

As you can see from the photo above, my family’s copy of Cocina Peruana has become overly well-worn over the years—the glue has long ago stopped trying to hold the cover onto the stiched pages and I now keep it in a gallon sized ziploc to hold it all together. This is true for generations of Peruvians who have had no alternative as the book has been out of print for over 30 years. Until now…..

We are pleased to announce that Cocina Peruana has been lovingly restored to its original perfection and is about to be offered to the public spring 2019 in both e-book and hard bound versions.

In addition, we are busy translating Cocina Peruana into English & will be posting some of those recipes here until the English version is ready to launch.

Subscribe to our Newletter to receive advance notice of when each book becomes available and how to get your own copy! I’m off to eat some Tallarines Verde!