Rick Bayless's Mexican kitchen (1996)

Bayless's 1996 follow-up is the one to buy after Authentic Mexican, when you want to move from learning the basics to cooking fuller, more ambitious dishes. It was named Book of the Year at the IACP's Julia Child Cookbook Awards. Expect the same careful explanation of chiles and sauces, applied to bigger projects. Some recipes run long, so save it for weekends, but it is the natural next step for anyone who has worked through the earlier book and wants more.