Description

A chefs gripping quest to reconcile his childhood experiences as a migrant farmworker with the rarefied world of fine dining

Born in rural Mexico Eduardo Lalo Garca Guzmn and his family left for the United States when he was a child picking fruits and vegetables on the migrant route from Florida to Michigan He worked in Atlanta restaurants as a teenager before being convicted of a robbery incarcerated and eventually deported Lalo landed in Mexico City as a new generation of chefs was questioning the hierarchies that had historically privileged European cuisine in elite spaces At his acclaimed restaurant Mximo Bistrot he began to craft food that narrated his memories and hopes

Mexico Citybased journalist Laura Tillman spent five years immersively reporting on Lalos story from Mximos kitchen to the onion fields of Vidalia Georgia to Dubais first highend Mexican restaurant to Lalos hometown of San Jos de las Pilas What emerges is a moving portrait of Lalos struggle to find authenticity in an industry built on the very inequalities that drove his family to leave their home and of the artistic process as Lalo calls on the experiences of his life to create transcendent cuisine The Migrant Chef offers an unforgettable window into a familys bordereclipsing dreams Mexicos culinary heritage and the making of a chef