Cookbooks that changed how I think about Mexican food

Not all cookbooks are technique books. Here are three that changed how I think rather than just what I cook. Diana Kennedy's The Art of Mexican Cooking: the most rigorous documentation of regional Mexican food in English. Not prescriptive — investigative. Reading it changed my understanding of what regional means. Nuevolution by Enrique Olvera: a chef's cookbook that is also a philosophy of Mexican food. The mole pages changed how I approach complexity. Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat (Samin Nosrat): not Mexican but the fat and acid chapters rewired how I think about every dish, including Mexican food. The acid chapter is the most useful 30 pages I have read about cooking. Books that teach you to think are worth more than books that teach you to follow.