Jinich first began researching and cooking Mexican cuisine out of homesickness for her native Mexico City, when she moved to Dallas, Texas, with her husband.

At the same time, as she was writing her bachelor's thesis, she offered to help KERA, the Dallas public TV station, with a documentary on the Mexican Revolution, but they needed help with another project: the PBS series New Tastes from Texas with Chef Stephan Pyles, for which she became a production assistant.

[21] Two years later, she relocated to Washington, DC, with her husband and their first-born son, where she resumed her academic pursuits, earning her master's degree from Georgetown and landing her "dream job"[20] at the Inter-American Dialogue, but she never stopped obsessively thinking about food[21] and enrolled at L'Academie de Cuisine in Maryland.

[20] Around the same time, she started her blog about Mexican cuisine, which was followed by invitations to write about food for print publications and to give talks and cooking demos for radio and TV shows.

After exploring different outlets, she decided APT was the right home for Pati's Mexican Table because of her commitment to authenticity and the independence the PBS and public-TV platform allows over the content of its shows.

The book is based on the traditional Mexican home cooking with which Jinich grew up, with many recipes gleaned from her childhood in Mexico City.

[38] Jinich's second cookbook, Mexican Today: New and Rediscovered Recipes for Contemporary Kitchens, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in April 2016.

NPR's Maria Godoy said, "Mexican Today explores not just traditional fare but [also] the country's evolving cuisine and the many immigrant groups who have influenced it.

"[39] Jinich's third cookbook, Treasures of the Mexican Table: Classic Recipes, Local Secrets, was published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in November 2021.

It is Jinich's most extensive cookbook yet, with recipes she has encountered in her travels all around Mexico including everything from world-famous dishes to local specialties unknown outside their regions.