Dinner: Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States

An Evening with Celebrated Chef and Author Claudette ZepedaCelebrate the release of Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States with chef, author, and Top Chef alumna Claudette Zepeda. Zepeda’s new cookbook traces a deeply personal journey across the borderlands, starting on the Pacific Coast where chef Zepeda grew up crossing back and forth between San Diego and Tijuana, and heading east through the Sonoran Desert. This evening’s menu shares the recipes of her upbringing and travels that bridge the nomadic legacy of her grandmother—who learned the regional dishes of nearly every state in Mexico—with the multicultural, third-culture cuisine born at the border. Driven by the balance of regional spices and smoke, the dishes highlight this rich cultural exchange, from the unexpected Cantonese–Szechuan flavors of Mexicali’s La Chinesca to the rugged traditions of desert vaqueros. Each course brings the culinary anthropology of her highly anticipated book straight to the plate and honors the matriarchs who shaped her craft. Copies of Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States will be available for purchase with tickets and at the event from our friends at Kitchen Arts & Letters. https://www.jamesbeard.org/events/dinner--cooking-the-borderlands