Most Americans are familiar with (and have eaten) Tex Mex cuisine with its cheap and tasty tacos and enchiladas, but how many have tasted authentic Mexican food? Rick Bayless works tirelessly to bring the real thing to American plates.
Specializing in traditional Mexican cuisine, enlivened with modern interpretations, Bayless is best known for his PBS Series: Mexico: One Plate at a Time. Bayless first developed an interest in Mexican food when he began studying the Spanish language and Latin American Culture. Travels to Latin America, particularly Mexico, led to his first cookbook, Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking From the Heart of Mexico. Over the years, he has traveled throughout Mexico and has become America’s resident expert on the culinary arts of our southern neighbor.
In addition to producing his television program and writing cookbooks, today Bayless works as a restaurant consultant and teaches authentic Mexican cooking throughout the U.S. He is credited for doing more than any other culinary star to introduce Americans to authentic Mexican cuisine and change the image of Mexican food in America, almost single-handedly elevating it from consideration as street food for the poor, to serious cuisine for the gastronomically discerning. Bayless himself contributed to a greater appreciation of Mexican fare when he opened the Frontera Grill in Chicago, which specializes in contemporary regional Mexican cooking. After the success of Frontera Grill, he followed it with Topolobampo, which is one of the nation’s only fine-dining Mexican restaurants.
Bayless’s book Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of a World Class Cuisine won the IACP National Julia Child “Cookbook of the Year Award,” and The New York Times called him a writer who makes “true Mexican food user-friendly for Americans.” At the 2001 James Beard Awards, his book, “Mexico-One Plate At a Time” was called the “Best International Cookbook.”
His work has been hailed as “the greatest contribution to the Mexican table imaginable.”
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