Recipe Book by María Josefa Hernández

Recipes for Cooking, for Convenience, and Others as Useful as They Are Curious (1935) by María Josefa HernándezOriginal Source: Los Recetarios

Grandma Pepa (Josefa Hernández) gave this notebook to her daughter Mary Luz in 1935, when the family still lived in Barcelona. It was entitled Recipes for Cooking, for Convenience, and Others as Useful as They Are Curious (Recetas de Cocina, de Tocador y Otras Tan Útiles Como Curiosas).

Recipes for Cooking, for Convenience, and Others as Useful as They Are Curious (1935) by María Josefa HernándezOriginal Source: Los Recetarios

The family traveled to Paris, exiled as a result of the Spanish Civil War. They later moved to Colombia, with its humid jungles, and Pepa's accomplished recipe book went with them in her daughter's luggage.

The tradition continued in the 1970s, thanks to Mercedes Alomar García (Pepa's granddaughter), who wrote her own recipe book. Both documents have been preserved to this day, as a result of the love and care of Joaquín Alomar.

Recipes for Cooking, for Convenience, and Others as Useful as They Are Curious (1935) by María Josefa HernándezOriginal Source: Los Recetarios

Both European flavors and new ingredients found in the Americas were captured in the pages of this book, which would return across the Atlantic decades later, headed to Spain. Interestingly, it also includes some Valencian recipes collected from the painter Joaquín Sorolla, who was Mary Luz's great uncle.

Every recipe book is written as a guide, designed to survive the passing of time. Sometimes the notebooks are handed down through generation after generation of the same family. They become reference documents for an entire bloodline.

Recipes for Cooking, for Convenience, and Others as Useful as They Are Curious (1935) by María Josefa HernándezOriginal Source: Los Recetarios

Discover more cookbooks in this exhibition created by Los Recetarios, a touring and collaborative digital initiative bringing together handwritten and typed recipe books.

Credits: Story

This notebook is part of the Los Recetarios (Cookbooks) project: a digital repository giving recognition and a voice to those who—without realizing it—helped to build and impart their country's gastronomical culture from the intimacy of their kitchen table. It was started in 2019 by four gastronomes: Ana Vega, Carmen Alcaraz del Blanco, Helena Vaello, and Gabriela Lendo.

This exhibition is part of the Spanish gastronomy project, España: Cocina Abierta (Spain: Open Kitchen), coordinated by Google Arts & Culture and Spain's Royal Academy of Gastronomy (Real Academia de la Gastronomía). The section on culinary legacy was coordinated by María Llamas, director of the Alambique cookery store and school.


Acknowledgements

Lourdes Plana Bellido, president of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy; Elena Rodríguez, director of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy and Carmen Simón, academic of the Royal Academy of Gastronomy.

www.realacademiadegastronomia.com
www.alambique.com

Credits: All media
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