Catherine Hwang

The celebrity chef Rick Bayless elevated Mexican cuisine from its roadside Tex-Mex roots to high-end tasting menus in major cities, a gourmet line of Mexican food products, and a multifaceted media empire.  This diptych offers clues to Chef Bayless’s climb from a family life shadowed by alcoholism -- to years of field study in Mexico -- to preparing the State Dinner for Mexican President Felipe Calderon. 

No descendant from the colonial subjects who synthesized Mesoamerican ingredients with Spanish cooking techniques can rival Chef Bayless as the ambassador of upscale Mexican food in the United States.  No clues are offered about the abuelita who prepares by hand recipes she inherited -- but did not personally create -- from her forbears.  The reach of her cooking is local.