Latin America

Latin America covers the entire region from Mexico down to Argentina, encompassing both Central and South America.

Mexico has the strongest culinary tradition and is the only one in the category to have been included on UNESCO's list of Intangible Cultural Heritage since 2010. Diana Kennedy moved there in 1957 and devoted the rest of her life to documenting its regional cuisines dish by dish, while Enrique Olvera at Pujol in Mexico City has shown that the same tradition can be taken to restaurant level without losing its identity. The foundations are nixtamalised corn, dried chillies, mole that can contain thirty ingredients and salsas made in a molcajete.

Peru is the other major centre. Gastón Acurio brought ceviche and Peruvian cooking to international attention, while Virgilio Martínez at Central builds menus around altitude to demonstrate the country's extraordinary biodiversity.

Further south, fire takes over, with Argentine asado, Patagonian open fire cooking and Brazilian cuisine shaped by West African heritage, palm oil and cassava.