Tex-Mex, barbecue, and chili are important aspects of a culinary culture in Texas that has developed organically over many years of trial and error by thousands of remarkable cooks on both sides of the border. Tex-Mex cuisine, a melding of regional American and interior Mexican, has become enormously popular not just in the Lone Star State but nationwide and, increasingly, throughout the world.

In Classic Tex-Mex Cooking, the book that Texas Monthly called "the 101 on Texas’s superlative cookin’," chef and Southwest food expert Jim Peyton carefully selects nearly one hundred of the cuisine's outstanding dishes and treats them comprehensively, simplifying each technique and recipe. From the basics of the Mexican table like pico de gallo and guacamole to fused dishes like tacos, fajitas, enchiladas, chili, and barbecue, the melding of Texas fire-cooked culture with Mexico's vast medley of flavors has never tasted so good.