Salsa! The Sauces of South America! A Travelogue of South America's Finest Sauces... made easy!

How was this collection put together? Really, it has been a journey of twenty years making my way into South American kitchens and speaking to chefs and cooks. I would ask, "What is the emblematic sauce, the representative sauce of your country?" Then, "Which sauce is your favorite?" Never wanting to miss a thing, I'd rush to scribble the recipe in my aide-mémoire (ever-present notebook) in the language it was given. Later in the hotel; I’d flesh out context, observations and details.

Eventually then I’d translate recipes into English from the Spanish and Portuguese. And with those notes in hand, I’d enter the kitchen with local ingredients to recreate sauces, always looking for the flavor I had enjoyed on the road. Most times the photographs were taken mid-conversation right there in the restaurant yet others were taken at home in La Paz, Bolivia. No special set-up or gear it was simply a matter of taking advantage of our large set of kitchen windows which daily afford ample unfiltered Andean sunshine, and that light lends a luminous quality to the images.

Most certainly these stories come alive when you cook, a face for every sauce. This is what I had wanted to share in the writing of this book; the living human side to culture and kitchen. To make a recipe from “SALSA!” read the cook's story before you begin. I believe it’ll change your end result. Somehow in the making you will open and enjoy a South American world of flavors, traditions and lifestyles. Now that is something to savor.

And finally here it is! And in all it's colorful glory!  

Salsa! The Sauces of South America!: A Travelogue of South America's Finest Sauces... made easy! 

Copyright © Mick Huerta 2014. All Rights Reserved. 
mickhuerta@gmail.com 
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