Image: Lourdes Cardenal · CC BY-SA 4.0
La Buena Mesa
- Year
- 1933
- Era
- 20th century
- Origin
- Colombia · Americas
- Language
- Spanish
- Category
- Latin America
La Buena Mesa, compiled by Sofía Ospina de Navarro and first published in 1933, is widely regarded as the foundational reference of Colombian domestic cookery. Written in Spanish for the urban Antioqueño household, it codified regional dishes, table manners, and the rhythms of family meals at a moment of national modernization. Reprinted across generations, it remains a touchstone for understanding twentieth-century Colombian culinary identity and bourgeois domestic culture.
Cooking from this book
Ajiaco santafereño
Signature dishA signature of Colombian home cooking, ajiaco santafereño is a hearty Bogotá soup built around three distinct varieties of potato that break down to thicken the broth, simmered with chicken and the aromatic herb guascas, then finished at the table with cream, capers and avocado. Its presence in this collection reflects Sofía Ospina de Navarro's mission to anchor a national culinary identity, gathering the dishes that Colombian families would come to regard as canonical.
An editorial note on a dish associated with this book, written for The Coquinist. It is not a reproduction of the book's recipe.
