Taste Mexico: Google celebrates Mexican cuisine

The project got the thumb’s up from a chef at a Mexico City gourmet restaurant

Google’s Arts & Culture department has published a visual and interactive project including thousands of photographs, illustrations, videos and articles to provide a comprehensive education on Mexican cuisine.

The encyclopedic Taste Mexico platform offers visitors the opportunity to “Learn the histories, meet the makers, and discover the secret ingredient of Mexico’s food culture” on a visually engaging website.

Users can browse through articles to learn the brief history of corn, gain insight on Mexican coffee culture, or examine a 19th century Mexican food market.

The platform provides an education on Mexican culture, including indigenous and regional traditions. It links to Google Street Maps in a “Now walk it off” section to highlight some of the country’s most beautiful cities, such as Puebla and Guanajuato. Lesson plans are also provided for teachers or parents to use as educational materials.

Luisella Mazza, head of Google Arts & Culture, said collaboration was key to the success of the project. “We aim to preserve the culture and show it around the world through Taste Mexico, one of Google’s largest projects, with more than 200 digital stories curated by more than 30 cultural institutions, who had the enthusiasm to share their own vision of Mexican gastronomy,” she said.

A chef at the Mexico City restaurant Dulce Patria, Martha Ortiz, said she was thrilled with Google’s efforts. “I love seeing this whole display. There are ingredients that make life complete and foundational recipes. If cuisine is history, if cuisine is memory, flavor and culture, I think this is one of the best platforms to show it,” she said.

Head of Google in Mexico, Julian Coulter, said the company is committed to improving lives through technology. “We want to help Mexicans take advantage of technology so that young people can consolidate their education, entrepreneurs can grow their businesses and so that all Mexicans can be better off,” he said.