On Masa: Techniques, Recipes, and Reflections on a Timeless Staple

MASA is your guide to making authentic, high-quality masa from scratch and cooking with it in your home kitchen.

It's time to learn the way to a perfect taco, and it all starts with the masa. Like sourdough before it, craft masa is on the brink of a global culinary movement. Jorge Gaviria's company, Masienda, has become a proxy message board at the center of the swelling masa conversation and with this cookbook he completes the story of how to create this special building block from scratch.

Brimming with history, replicable techniques, and reflections from masa authorities, including third-generation tortillerxs and acclaimed chefs, MASA reveals the beauty and longstanding traditions behind this elemental staple. In addition to teaching how to make masa from dried corn kernel to fully realized dish, this book also shows cooks how to use masa in 50 base recipes for tortillas, pozole, tamales, and more, empowering chefs of any level to think creatively and adapt recipes confidently for their own use.

In addition, ten well-known chefs offer inventive recipes-such as tamal gnocchi, masa waffles, and shrimp and masa grits-to inspire new ways of relating to this timeless, dynamic food.