What is Like Water for Chocolate about?
Like Water for Chocolate (Como agua para chocolate, 1989) is Laura Esquivel's novel about Tita, the youngest daughter of a family on the Mexican border, who by family tradition may never marry because she must look after her mother. When the man she loves marries her sister instead, Tita pours everything she cannot say into her cooking, and her emotions pass, quite literally, into the people who eat it. It is told in twelve chapters, one per month, each built around a recipe.
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Few novels make you hungry and heartbroken in the same paragraph. Laura Esquivel's novel, published in Mexico in 1989, does it on almost every page. An early English edition's full title gives the game away: a novel in monthly instalments, with recipes, romances and home remedies.
The story
The setting is a ranch near Piedras Negras, Coahuila, close to the border with the United States, during the years of the Mexican Revolution. Tita is the youngest of three daughters of a formidable mother. Family tradition says the youngest daughter may not marry: she is to care for her mother until her mother dies.
Tita falls in love with Pedro. Her mother refuses to let them marry and offers him Tita's older sister, Rosaura, instead. Pedro accepts, so that he can at least live close to Tita. The rest of the novel unfolds over the years that follow, in the kitchen, at the table and in the space between people who cannot say what they feel.
The magic in the kitchen
The kitchen is the one place where Tita can express herself. What she feels while she cooks goes into the food, and whoever eats it feels it too. Sadness, longing and desire spread through the household by way of a cake, a sauce or a dish of quail, and the results are by turns funny, tender and chaotic.
This is magical realism at its most delicious: impossible events told in a completely matter-of-fact voice, in a world otherwise full of real ingredients, real chores and real family tyranny. For more on the style, see what is magical realism.
The structure
The novel is built like a year of a family cookbook. There are twelve chapters), one for each month from January to December, and each takes its title from a dish or preparation from the family's kitchen: Christmas rolls, quail in rose petals, a turkey mole, wedding cake, chiles en nogada and more. The steps of the recipe weave through the chapter, interrupted by the story, so that the plot moves at the pace of chopping, stirring and waiting.
The narrator is a later member of the family, telling Tita's story from her inherited recipe book, which gives the whole thing the feel of a story told across a kitchen table.
Why it is worth reading
- It is short and fast. Twelve chapters, lots of incident, plenty of humour.
- Food is the language. Every important emotion in the book is expressed in cooking, which makes it a treat for anyone who loves to cook.
- It is a love story with teeth. Underneath the romance is a sharp portrait of family duty, control and rebellion.
- It is a gateway book. For many readers it is their first magical realist novel, and an inviting one.
A word of caution for cooks: the recipes are part of the storytelling, not a cookbook. Enjoy them as scenes rather than instructions.
Book and film
The 1992 film, directed by Alfonso Arau with Lumi Cavazos as Tita, is lovely to look at. A television series followed in 2024. The book remains the best way in, because the recipe structure and the narrator's voice give it a texture that is hard to film.
FAQ
Is Like Water for Chocolate a romance novel?
It is a romance, but also a family drama, a comedy and a tragedy, mixed with magical realism. Readers who expect only romance are often surprised by how much else is going on.
Do you need to read it in Spanish?
No. It is widely available in English. If you read some Spanish, the original is a satisfying read, with plenty of kitchen vocabulary.
Is it suitable for teenagers?
For older teenagers, generally yes. There is sensuality and some sadness, but nothing graphic by modern standards.
Can you cook the recipes?
They are woven into the story rather than written as a cookbook, so treat them as inspiration. If a chapter makes you want to cook, look up a proper recipe for the dish.
Sources
Written by the Zestasy editors. General information for curious adults, not medical, nutrition or training advice.