Mariana McEnroe

Mariana Nuño Ruiz is the author of "Dining with the Dead ~ A Feast for the Souls on Day of the Dead" her cookbook tells the history, origins, and describes how Día de Muertos is traditionally celebrated in Mexico. Iconic traditional Mexican recipes comprise the backbone of her book, specifically those most commonly prepared to celebrate Día de Muertos. Dining with the Dead was named one of the Southwest Books of the Year for 2023, it won the Independent Publishers Book Awards Gold Medal in cookbooks. Dining with the Dead has been featured on NPR, in Texas Monthly, Atlas Obscura, at the Texas Book Festival 2022, and Tucson Book Festival 2023, to name a few.

Mariana was born and raised in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, and comes from a long line of strong women. Margarita, her traditional grandma, kindled her passion for traditional Mexican cooking at an early age. Ana Fernanda, her modern grandma, inspired her to become a woman with a professional career and to see the world with wider eyes. The combination of their teachings ignited Mariana's love for cooking and her curiosity beyond the kitchen, to learn about ingredients, their origins, and the history of foods. Thanks to her mother's full support and hard work, Mariana earned an architecture degree from ITESO University in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.

After working as an architect for more than nine years, she followed her bliss and acquired a culinary arts degree from AWC in Arizona. She has cooked in restaurants, catered, baked, and sculpted and decorated cakes. She also offers cooking classes and workshops. Mariana enjoys mambo, Jazz, old movies, food history, creating recipes, and collecting new and rare cookbooks. For Mariana, nothing compares to chiles and corn, and she celebrates every tomato season. Her last supper would be Frijolitos de la Olla, and salsa de molcajete. When she is not cooking she is thinking about cooking.