Worst cookbook mistake ever?

Enrique Olvera's 'Sunny Days, Taco Nights' badly botches the most basic and important component of the dish: the tortilla. Plus: Vegans are people, too.

Half a year ago, I was super excited to read that this summer, Enrique Olvera — Mexico’s most famous chef — would be publishing a new book: Sunny Days, Taco Nights.

Olvera’s last effort, Tu Casa Mi Casa, is one of my favorite cookbooks. Now the brilliant chef (Pujol in Mexico City, Cosme and Atla in New York, etc.) would be sharing his recipes for tacos, one of my favorite foods in the universe. Such great news!

At long last, my review copy from Phaidon arrived (it will be published June 3). I couldn’t wait to crack it open. How, I wondered, would Olvera instruct us to make tortillas? Tu Casa Mi Casa, you see, was published in 2019, just a few months before Masienda introduced its groundbreaking, life-changing heirloom-corn masa harina onto the market. Before that, anyone wanting to enjoy handmade tortillas had to make and grind nixtamal, a tedious and difficult process for home cooks, or use awful commodi…