RIP

Mexican Cuisine Queen Diana Kennedy Dies Aged 99

British-born food writer’s passing widely lamented in her adopted homeland, whose culinary traditions she championed.

Diana Kennedy, the legendary British food writer who helped rescue Mexican cuisine from Tex-Mex stereotypes in a series of revered books, has died aged 99. Her death was confirmed by the Mexican culture ministry, which added that Kennedy understood “like few others” that conserving nature was key to preserving the gastronomic heritage of Mexico. Kennedy was born in the East of England in 1923 and moved to Canada in 1953. She moved to Mexico later in the decade after marrying a New York Times journalist, Paul P. Kennedy, and quickly fell in love with the country and its traditions—especially culinary ones. She continued to live in Michoacán in western Mexico, where she died at home on Sunday. Arturo Sarukhan, a former Mexican ambassador to the U.S., described her death as a “huge loss for Mexico, the UK and gastronomy,” adding that she had “changed the narrative and perceptions of Mexican cuisine from a bland mish-mash of TexMex towards a sophisticated tapestry of regional cuisines.”