More than a cookbook, My Mother’s Bolivian Kitchen is a memoir of a Bolivian childhood. In addition to a comprehensive collection of Bolivian recipes, for everything from salteas (meat-filled pastries) and quinoa soup to picante de pollo (spicy chicken), Sánchez-H. shares many childhood memories. He takes the reader to his Aunt Nazarias sixty-ninth birthday party to feast on picante de pato con chuño (spicy duck with freeze-dried potatoes; to observe El Día de Todos Santos (All Saints Day) when bread is baked in honor of the deceased; and camping in the mountains where the memory of his mother’s food leads him home. These memories, among others, demonstrate the importance of food in Bolivian culture.