HBO's Like Water For Chocolate cooks up a bitter love triangle in new trailer

Have you been craving a surreal and dramatic forbidden love story like Wuthering Heights, but weren’t sure if Emerald Fennell’s version would be to your taste? HBO’s new Like Water For Chocolate series might be just the thing to whet your appetite. Adapted from Laura Esquivel’s classic 1989 novel of the same name, the upcoming six-episode show promises a perfect recipe of magical realism, beautiful scenery, and what producer Salma Hayek Pinault calls “a coming-of-age story that shows the passage of finding your own identity and fighting for it, detaching yourself from the anxiety of disappointing your parents and learning to take ownership of your life.” 

Set during the Mexican Revolution, Like Water For Chocolate tells the story of Tita de la Garza (Azul Guaita) and Pedro Múzquiz (Andrés Baida), “two souls deeply in love, yet unable to be together due to entrenched family customs.” The show’s synopsis continues: “The protagonists navigate a world of magical realism and rich flavors as Tita struggles between the destiny imposed on her by her family and her fight for love. Along the way, the audience will witness her greatest refuge: the kitchen. For Tita, her magical connection to cooking becomes an active resistance against oppression, allowing her to channel her deepest desires and passions into her recipes, transforming those who taste them.”

In the trailer, Tita’s strict mother, Elena (Irene Azuela) explains that she “decided a long time ago that Tita will stay and look after me in this house until I die.” Therefore Pedro, the love of her life, will marry her sister, Rosaura (Ana Valeria Becerril), instead. What is Tita to do but cook her pain, sadness, and at one point, sheer horniness into her dishes? 

In an interview with Variety, Hayek Pinault also spoke about what the show means for Mexican representation. “I hope this story breaks stereotypes by focusing on a family in Northern Mexico that looks different than how we normally imagine Mexicans,” she said. “I hope it shows people that Mexican food is so much more than just tacos, and we have many exquisite dishes that people have never heard of, but that your mouth craves. I am excited for audiences to be transported through the series and watch the tale unfold.”

Like Water For Chocolate premieres November 3 on HBO Latino and Max.