Diana Kennedy's cookbooks are about far more than food. Woven through the recipes of her impeccably researched books is a considerable amount of anthropology and history, as well as cultural and agricultural preservation, including her latest, 'Oaxaca al Gusto,' (University of Texas Press, $50), a work more than a decade in the making. 'If you give value to these women up in remote places who are using everything around them, then they're going to realize that these things have value and they're going to preserve (these ingredients and techniques),' Kennedy said in a phone interview from her Mexican home in the state of Michoac n. 'It's a mission.' Kennedy, perhaps the world's foremost authority on Mexican cuisine, has spent more than 50 years in Mexico, documenting recipes and the cultures that produce them. For the octogenarian author who bluntly dismisses the way many chefs in the United States and Mexico approach her beloved cuisine, it's also most likely her last. 'I can't see another book from me,' she said, 'because I really don't want to spend any more time. Cooking those 300 recipes in the Oaxaca book, and then writing it and rewriting it and then rearranging it, ay, no, no, no.' For those who follow food world happenings and especially Mexican cooking, hers is a name as common as Gordon Ramsay or Emeril Lagasse. For those unfamiliar with her story, it's barely believable. While traveling in Latin America, the British native made a stop in Haiti and met Paul Kennedy, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. She described meeting him as 'un flechazo,' an arrow strike. Think Cupid. They married in 1957 and they lived in Mexico City. She would accompany her husband on story assignments and learn about dishes throughout the country. She'd ask her friends in Mexico City about dishes she had just learned about, and they told her she had to talk to their maids, who then told her she'd have to visit them in their villages if she wanted to learn how to make them correctly. She did. Paul and Diana Kennedy's marriage was happy but brief. He developed cancer and the couple returned to New York in 1966, where he died a year later. A friend of the couple's from the Times, then-food editor Craig Claiborne, got her a job giving cooking lessons. Among her students was a woman who suggested that Kennedy turn the class into a book, and became her editor. Works such as 'The Cuisines of Mexico' and 'The Art of Mexican Cooking,' became classics the way that Julia Child's works on French cooking have remained timeless. She has received the Aztec Eagle, the highest award the Mexican government can bestow on a foreigner, and was awarded Member of the British Empire status from Queen Elizabeth for promoting Mexican culture in the English-speaking world. And yet she couldn't get a commercial publisher to go for her latest book. 'They didn't want it. An ex-agent of mine said, 'How can I give this to a New York publisher when the photographs are slightly out of focus?'.' she said. 'Now, my photographs aren't great, but they're pretty damn good.' Her other judgments are equally succinct. She termed a New York Times article on salsas 'absolutely ridiculous.' Her verdict about tomatillos that come from new seeds: 'Big and fat and tasteless.' The biggest threat she sees to Mexico's culinary heritage comes from cheap, low-quality food coming into the country and displacing the more flavorful and healthful local products, even to the point that Mexico imports chiles from China. 'They're not the same flavor and they shouldn't be imported,' she said. 'This is quite outrageous and I will take on the people in the Mexican government who are allowing this to happen.' She hopes her work will help stimulate demand from abroad for the higher quality local ingredients. After all, if high-end markets can obtain obscure ingredients from Europe and Asia, why not Mexico? 'Many of these ingredients come from areas that are very poor and they're losing immigrants to find work,' she said. 'More people would be able to establish themselves in the areas where they live, plus these things would be able to survive the market in Mexico.' When she finishes her book tour, she plans to return to Mexico to continue researching indigenous foods for the National Commission for the Knowledge and Use of Biodiversity (or its acronym in Spanish, CONABIO). 'I'm a very active person,' she said. 'I want to spend the rest of my days doing what I know best and that's identifying what people are using in the culture. SALSA DE HUEVO Y SALSA DE QUESO (Eggs in Tomato Sauce and Cheese in Tomato Sauce) Ingredients Salsa de Huevo 5 large eggs Salt, to taste 2 tablespoons vegetable oil 1 pound tomatoes, broiled or simmered in very little water 3 garlic cloves, toasted and peeled 2 chiles de agua, broiled, skinned and deseeded (chiles gueros or jalapenos may be substituted) Approximately 2/3 cup water 2 large sprigs epazote Crumbled queso fresco, for garnish 1/4 cup coarsely chopped flat-leaved parsley, for garnish Salsa de Queso Tomato Sauce (from above recipe; see directions below) 12-14 ounces quesillo de Oaxaca or string cheese 1/4 cup coarsely chopped parsley, for garnish Directions For Salsa de Huevo: Beat eggs well with salt to taste. Heat oil in a large skillet, add eggs in a fairly thin layer and cook, lifting up edge and tilting pan so eggs cook evenly. When the omelet is set and the bottom slightly browned, remove from heat and cut into 8 pieces. Leave residue of oil in the pan. Blend together the tomatoes, garlic and chiles to a slightly textured sauce. Add to pan and cook over fairly high heat until sauce is reduced a little, about 5 minutes. Dilute sauce with water; add salt to taste and epazote and continue cooking over medium heat for another 5 minutes. Add omelet pieces and reheat for just a few minutes. Serve with plenty of sauce and sprinkle with cheese and parsley. As a variation: With or without eggs, add 2 ounces of thin chicharr?n, broken into small pieces, and cook until it softens. For Salsa de Queso: Instead of using eggs, prepare tomato sauce as directed without preparing eggs first. Unwind the skeins of the cheese and cut into pieces. Heat tomato sauce and when it comes up to a simmer, add pieces of cheese. Serve as soon as it melts so it will not be overcooked and rubbery. Sprinkle with parsley. Salsa de Huevo makes 4 servings, each 200 calories (59.3 percent calories from fat), 14 g fat, 270 mg cholesterol, 160 mg sodium, 12 g carbohydrates, 3 g dietary fiber, 9 g protein. Salsa de Queso makes 4 servings, each 360 calories (59.6 percent calories from fat), 27 g fat, 45 mg cholesterol, 810 mg sodium, 13 g carbohydrates, 3 g dietary fiber, 27 g protein. Source: 'Oaxaca al Gusto,' by Diana Kennedy. MOLE NEGRO DE NOPALA For meat, either chicken, turkey or pork is cooked and added with its broth to the prepared mole. Ingredients 8 ounces guajillo chiles 10 costeno chiles, dried Approximately 3 cups water, divided use 1 small head garlic, toasted, cloves separated and peeled 1 medium white onion, cut into quarters and toasted 1 1/2 tablespoons dried thyme leaves 2 peppercorns, crushed 1 small corn tortilla, charred and broken up 4 tablespoons (rendered) lard or vegetable oil 2 1/4 pounds tomatoes, toasted Salt, to taste 1/2 cup soft bread crumbs Directions Remove seeds from guajillos and costenos, reserving those of the guajillos. Toast chiles in an ungreased skillet until black, cover with cold water and set aside to soak about 25 minutes. In the same pan, toast reserved seeds until black (open the windows and have tissues and a glass of water at hand), rinse briefly in cold water, and strain. Strain chiles, add to blender jar with 2 cups of the water, and blend to a smooth consistency. Strain to remove any tough pieces of skin remaining. Add another 1 cup of water to blender jar; add chile seeds, garlic, onion, thyme and peppercorns and blend well. Then add tortilla pieces and blend again well, adding a little more water if necessary. Heat lard in a large pan in which you are going to cook the mole. Add the (first) blended ingredients and cook over fairly high heat, scraping the bottom of the pan to prevent sticking, for about 5 minutes. Then add blended chiles and continue frying over medium heat until well seasoned, about 15 minutes. Blend tomatoes (with skins), add to pan with salt to taste, and cook over medium heat for an additional 10 minutes. The mole should have a fairly thick consistency. At this stage, the mole can be stored for a few days in refrigerator or freezer. When ready to use, heat the mole until bubbling, dilute with about 4 cups of the meat broth, and when it returns to a boil, add the meat and heat through over medium heat for about 15 minutes, thickening to taste with the bread crumbs. Makes 12 servings (with broth, but no meat), each 180 calories (28.7 percent calories from fat), 5 g fat, 0 mg cholesterol, 590 mg sodium, 24 g carbohydrates, 1 g dietary fiber, 5 g protein. Source: 'Oaxaca al Gusto,' by Diana Kennedy. 