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Diana Kennedy, cookbook author who promoted Mexican cuisine, dies at 99

In defense of authenticity, she influenced generations of chefs and deplored Americans’ fast-food experience of wan tacos and overseasoned enchiladas

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Diana Kennedy at her home garden in Zitácuaro, a city in Michoacán, Mexico. She was a leading authority on Mexican cooking. (Paul Harris/Getty Images)
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Diana Kennedy, a British-born cookbook author and expatriate who became one of the world’s leading experts on authentic Mexican cuisine, influencing generations of chefs and deploring Americans’ fast-food experience of wan tacos and overseasoned enchiladas, died July 24 at her home in Zitácuaro, Mexico. She was 99.

Her friend Concepción Guadalupe Garza Rodríguez confirmed her death to the Associated Press but did not cite a specific cause.