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How Maru Toledo Is Preserving Jalisco’s Forgotten Culinary History

By Naomi Tomky, provided by

|Updated

When Maru Toledo asked a 100-year-old woman about a “turco de garbanz[o],” an old wedding dessert made with shreds of chicken, the elder shook her cane at the chef, less than half her age, demanding answers. “Where did you get that recipe from; how do you know it?”

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Toledo, a culinary historian, explained her work: She researches the disappearing recipes of Jalisco, her home state, and had combed through old documents to piece together this specific one.

By Naomi Tomky