Like Water for Chocolate opens with a bit of wisdom from one of its central settings, the kitchen: to avoid tears when chopping onions, one must simply place a slice of onion on one's head.

Onion-induced weeping quite literally sweeps the protagonist, Tita, into the world, as she is born in the kitchen, crying, amidst of flood of her mother's tears. Her mother, Mama Elena, is unable to produce milk (due to shock at the recent death of her husband) and consequently hands off Tita almost immediately to the house cook, Nacha, who rears the child in the kitchen. Surrounded by the colors, smells, and routines of Nacha's kitchen, Tita grows up understanding the world in terms of food. She enjoys her isolation in the domain of the kitchen.

Outside