Rick Bayless
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Rick Bayless Award-winning chef-restaurateur, cookbook author and television personality, Rick Bayless has done more than any other culinary star to introduce Americans to authentic Mexican cuisine and to change the image of Mexican food in America. Bayless currently resides in Chicago, where he runs Frontera Grill and Topolobampo. He is the founder of the Frontera Farmer Foundation, an organization that supports small local farmers and has been active in Share Our Strength, the nation's largest hunger advocacy organization. Bayless recently won the title of Top Chef Master on the hugely popular Top Chef Masters television program on the Bravo Network. Top Chef Masters pitted 24 world-renowned chefs against each other to see how well they fared in the tried and true format of Top Chef. As the winner, Bayless received $100,000 for his foundation -- The Frontera Farmer Foundation. This is a nonprofit organization committed to promoting small, sustainable farms by providing them with capital development grants. The Foundation envisions a year-round interchange between sustainable farmers and consumers, including farmers’ market patrons and chefs, in which seasonal local agriculture provides the foundation for sustainable regional cuisine. Bayless has written numerous critically acclaimed cookbooks, including Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking From The Heart of Mexico (William Morrow, 1987). The New York Times’ legendary Craig Claiborne hailed this work as the “greatest contribution to the Mexican table imaginable”. In 1996, Bayless' Mexican Kitchen: Capturing the Vibrant Flavors of a World-Class Cuisine (Scribner) won the IACP National Julia Child “Cookbook of the Year Award”. The New York Times praised him as a writer who makes “true Mexican food user-friendly for Americans," and Time Magazine hailed him as a "cookbook superstar”. At the 2001 James Beard Awards (the culinary equivalent of the Oscars), Mexico – One Plate at a Time was singled out as the “Best International Cookbook”. In 1987, Bayless opened the hugely successful Frontera Grill, which specializes in contemporary regional Mexican cooking. Today it remains one of Chicago's hottest dining spots. In 1988, Food & Wine Magazine selected Bayless as "Best New Chef of The Year". In 1991 he won a James Beard Award for "Best American Chef: Midwest”. In 1995, he won another James Beard Award for "National Chef of the Year" as well as an award for "Chef of the Year" from the International Association of Culinary Professionals (IACP). In 1998, the Beard Foundation honored Rick as "Humanitarian of the Year”. On the heels of Frontera Grill's success, Bayless opened the elegant Topolobampo in 1989. Adjacent to Frontera Grill, Tobolobampo is one of America's only fine-dining Mexican restaurants. Frontera Grill and Topolobampo have received glowing distinctions from such publications as Gourmet, Food & Wine, Bon Appétit, Atlantic Monthly, Condé Nast Traveler, Zagat's, The Wine Spectator, USA Today, Chicago Magazine and The Chicago Tribune. Topolobampo has been nominated twice by the James Beard Foundation as one of the most outstanding restaurants in our country. In 1996, Bayless began the prepared food line of salsas, chips, and grilling rubs under the Frontera Foods label. Frontera Foods went on to open Frontera Fresco—a food kiosk in the historic Marshall Fields (now Macy’s) building in 2005 in Chicago. Rick is a restaurant consultant, teaches authentic Mexican cooking throughout the United States (he is a visiting staff member at the Culinary Institute of America), and leads cooking and cultural tours to Mexico. Mexico—One Plate at a Time is currently in its fifth season on PBS. His cookbook with his 15-year-old daughter, Lanie, titled Rick and Lanie’s Excellent Kitchen Adventures was nominated for a James Beard Award as well as Rick’s sixth cookbook, Mexican Everyday . .