Texans, as you may have heard, are proud people. One reason is were ground zero for some pretty darn great food. Barbecue, Tex-Mex, even German comfort food. A new cookbook brings these and other flavorful favorites together. It’s called “United Tastes of Texas: Authentic Recipes from All Corners of the Lone Star State.”
Jessica Dupuy, who wrote the cookbook, says growing up in a food-focused family gave her plenty of inspiration for the book.
“It was always a fight for whose recipe was going to make it to the top,” Dupuy says. “Even to this day when my mom is asking me, like, ‘Hey, which night are we going to celebrate your birthday?’ before we even get that down, she’s like, ‘Okay what do you want to cook?'”
The book is organized into different regions of Texas: central, east, coastal, south and west. Dupuy says she did that because the sheer size of Texas has given rise to diverse regional styles.
“Texas is the size of France, which is a pretty big country,” Dupuy says. “Even within France, there’s all these different regional styles of cooking and that’s very similar to Texas.”
Her cookbook features recipes that showcase the wide range of cultural influences, not just the mainstays.
“We’re not just Tex-Mex, we’re not just barbecue,” Dupuy says. “We really do have a history of culture that impacts all of the flavors, depending on what part of the state you’re in.”
