“For the pulp to be alive, it has to be alive,” says Juan Escalona, author of “Pulp.” Long live the pulp!, Edited by Novo. This is the first publishing label dedicated to exploring Mexican gastronomy from different angles, which is incredible in a country obsessed with food, because Mexicans eat all day and while we eat we talk about food.
This publishing house was founded in 2023 and is led by María Alvarez, who believes that the lack of gastronomic publishers is not unusual: “Making books is difficult, requiring patience and care, and many hands and minds. Perhaps we take Mexican food and its richness for granted.” We may think that it is enough to prepare some refried beans and eat them with pleasure to honor our cooking mothers, but behind this “simple” dish there is a chain of people – from the farmer to the person who invented or made the recipe and us as guests – who contribute a grain of salt, which is why it is useful to leave the stories printed on paper, especially in a world that clings to the digital cloud.
“For me, Novo is an opportunity to embody in books a complex and wide-ranging vision of what nourishes us. And also to do what I love: eating, traveling, learning, writing, editing and forming teams,” says Maria, who hosts the show. Long live the pulp! During the Guadalajara International Book Fair, written by Juan Escalona, with photographs by Ana Lorenzana and illustrations by Aldo Domínguez and Lucía Sarabia.
This book is the publisher’s fourth. The first is Oaxacan cuisine By Chef Alejando Ruiz, one of the pioneers of Oaxacan gastronomy. “It’s not about Alejandro’s personality cult, it’s about his origin,” says Maria. Journey through the culinary greatness of Oaxaca through different regions: the countryside, the sea and the state capital.
Novo’s second installment is dedicated to edible mushrooms, wandering the land from which they originate, and allowing you to meet those who collect and cook them. Mushroom condition It is a journey led by Nanai Watabe, who confirms: “I have been working on this topic for more than ten years with my teacher Andrés. The book is about connecting with other communities and I am connecting too, because you don’t find the mushrooms, the mushrooms find you.”
From a radical element to an element that came from afar, Democratic Republic of the Pig Written by journalist Pedro Reyes is Novo’s third bet. For Maria, it was very important to check our country’s relationship with his favorite protein, because “pork is everywhere,” she says. From cochinita pibil to carnitas or tacos al pastor, nothing thunders like chicharrón on Mexican tables.
Pulp, unlike pork, is absent from most tables. Long live the pulp! It is a vindication of this drink that has been stigmatized by rumors, as Juan Escalona asserts: “It is a book for a complete geek like me, to be able to understand and demystify the lies about pulp.”
Who has not heard that “the pulp continues to ferment in the stomach” or that “they put cow dung in it to ferment it”? According to Juan, much of this notoriety is consistent with “a smear campaign by breweries” and he explains one such myth: “Anything that reaches the stomach comes into contact with hydrochloric acid, and that’s why the pulp bacteria can’t survive either.”
This ancient drink is the result of fermenting mead extracted from the heart of maguey trees. It is a young yeast, slightly thick, white, semi-acid and at the same time sweet and effervescent; Most importantly, it is a staple in the diet of some communities, because they not only drink it, but use it as a base for sauces, moles or stews, and it is part of their culture and a way of resistance. In Juan’s case, pulque means family: “It’s been important to me all my life. My grandparents did it; they left it because they were encouraged to study and not devote themselves to the fields.”
This is Mexico where development meant changing shoes for shoes and moving to the city to work in a factory or office. Like his predecessors, in his biology classes “I reconnected with pulp,” says Juan, who insists that it should be talked about, consumed or even produced on a large scale, which is why he wrote a guide to making pulp at home.
Novo’s releases strive to be as edible as the ingredients that inspire them; They contain guides, illustrations, recipes, and maps, but above all they contain the stories of their authors, and those who taught, fed, or guided them. Stories to enrich our gastronomy and leave its archive. Maria wants to “create audiences and readers who are interested in culinary topics. Let them get to know people from land to table or those who have the talent to preserve and showcase our heritage. We want to bet on the future of undervalued ingredients or foods like pulp.”
Novo looks forward and builds on the past. It is named in honor of Salvador Novo, the poet, essayist, playwright and historian, who understood decades ago that cake sometimes says more about Mexicans than a sociological study. Gastronomy is stripping us as a society, and in Mexico it is more vital and vibrant than ever, as far as pulp.