Rick Bayless is Mexican cooking's great American voice. An award-winning chef and author of bestselling Mexican cookbooks like Authentic Mexican, he's found a way to present honest recipes in a friendly, relaxed fashion that nonetheless touches every technical base. One Plate at a Time takes his approach a step further. Bayless offers more than 120 recipes, providing traditional versions of much-loved classics like Green Chile Chicken Tamales, modern renditions of the basic repertoire, and dish "anatomies." These detail what a given dish should taste and look like, when it's best served, and how American cooks should approach its preparation. This goofproof strategy will appeal to old cooking hands and culinary gringos alike.

Ranging from soups and starters to entrees, light meals, desserts, and drinks, the chapters present a wide range of dishes, from the simple (such as guacamole, updated with roasted poblanos, garlic, and tomatoes) to the more complex (a classic red mole with turkey, for one, followed by Roasted Cornish Game Hens with Apricot-Pine Nut Mole). Other winning recipes include Seafood in Mojo de Ajo (with toasted, slow-cooked garlic), Smoky Chipotle Beans with Wilted Spinach and Masa "Gnocchi," and, for dessert, a definitive vanilla flan with instructions for preparing it in three versions: light, creamy, and rich. Throughout, recipes are followed by paragraph-long "postmortems" (is Mexican vanilla worth searching out, for instance) that further extend reader understanding. With 32 pages of color photos and an extensive glossary, the book is an inspired place to start or continue a Mexican cooking journey. --Arthur Boehm


From Publishers Weekly
Rarely has a cuisine been so epically dissected, analyzed, pined over and exemplified in the name of a tasty dinner. Indeed, cookbook is perhaps too tame a description for this latest venture from Bayless, the popular chef and author (Salsas That Cook, etc.). Each recipe begins with a stream-of-consciousness consideration that at times runs a bit too jolly. "No food translates into more carefree fun than a singing dish of queso fundido," declares the author. Following the lead-in, a paragraph provides the "Traditional Benchmark," wherein the ideal version of the dish is captured. Thus, readers learn what makes the perfect flan or Pozole (Pork and Hominy Stew). Next come a few words on "When to Think of These Recipes"DChiles Rellenos when you're pulling out the stops, Tamales for hanging out with the gang. A third paragraph offers "Advice for American Cooks," such as what peppers you can substitute in your Adobado Chicken. Then, at last, come the recipes. Bayless provides both a traditional and contemporary version of most dishes. Among his many happy surprises are a relatively unknown "street-style" enchilada, which is dipped in chile sauce and quick fried, and a grilled Cactus Salad. Each recipe is followed by answers to Frequently Asked Questions. How saucy should the filling be for your taco? Or maybe just tune in and read along to the PBS version, with one of Bayless's Mango Coolers in hand. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
Bayless (Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen) is increasingly seen as America's foremost authority on Mexican cookery, and this book, the companion volume to his currently running PBS television series, should further that reputation. Just as in his previous cookbooks, Bayless communicates the sense of joy, satisfaction, and community to be found in traditional Mexican cookery. But he also delves more deeply into the ingredients and techniques involved in producing a wide variety of dishes, from simple sopes (little "boats" made of masa, filled with salsa and cheese, and shallow-fried in lard) and quesadillas to imaginative ceviches and moles. For each type of dish, he offers both traditional and contemporary recipes, reminding us that the strength of a great cuisine is its ability to adapt and evolve. There are helpful questions and answers at the end of each section, based on questions generated by recipe testers, an addition that may be unique to the cookbook genre. There is much here for both neophytes and experienced cooks. Highly recommended for all public libraries.DTom Cooper, Richmond Heights Memorial Lib., MO Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Review
Sara Moulton host of Cooking Live with Sara Moulton Rick Bayless -- one of the greatest teachers I know -- has demystified Mexican cuisine for American home cooks. He demonstrates that there's much more to this great cuisine than nachos and burritos. Indeed, under Rick's tutelage it appears that Mexican cuisine is as vast and subtle as French or Italian.


Book Description
Rick Bayless has been acclaimed widely as America's foremost proponent of Mexico's thrillingly diverse cuisine. In this companion book to his 26-part Public Television series, he takes us, with boyish enthusiasm, through Mexican markets, street stalls and home kitchens to bring us the great dishes of Mexico, one "plate" at a time. And each "plate" Rick presents here is a Mexican classic. Take guacamole, for instance. After teaching us the essentials for a perfect, classic guacamole, Rick shows how to spin contemporary interpretations, like his Roasted Poblano Guacamole with garlic and parsley. Rick's cuisine is always lively, but rooted in strong traditions. Always the teacher, Rick begins each "plate" with some never-before-found features: traditional benchmarks (Rick's idea of the best guacamole), when to think of the recipes (weeknight dinners or casual party food), and advice for American cooks (Rick's insight into the ingredients that make the dish). He rounds out each "plate" with suggestions for working ahead. To complete the journey into the Mexican mindset, Rick, with help from his testers, ends each "plate" with a question-and-answer section detailing just about everything a home cook might want to know: What are the best cuts of beef for grilled tacos? The best cheeses for quesadillas? Is one grill better than another? Rick draws from his years of living in Mexico, pulling us into the Mexican kitchen, to teach us how to create authentic Mexican dishes in our American kitchens. Rick is an Indiana Jones of the stove, a Julia Child of Mexican cuisine in black jeans and a T-shirt. Rick's goal: to enable folks all across the United States to create dishes that weave in the rich tapestry of Mexican flavor with ingredients that are widely available. He always provides ingredients that make the dish authentic, but he also delivers with the right substitute if an ingredient is hard to find. Experience food you can't wait to make in a new and user-friendly cookbook that contains the full range of dishes -- Starters, Snacks and Light Meals; Soups, Stews and Sides; Entrées; Desserts and Drinks. Rick serves up such classic Mexican plates as Tomatillo-Braised Pork Loin, Quick-Fried Shrimp with Sweet Toasty Garlic, Chiles Rellenos, Cheesy Enchiladas Suizas, and Mexican Vanilla-Scented Flan. And for an exciting taste of the unexpected, try Rick's contemporary interpretations of the classics -- Crispy Potato Sopes with Goat Cheese and Fresh Herbs, Grilled Salmon with Lemon-and-Thyme-Scented Salsa Veracruzana, Broiled Flank Steak with Tomato-Poblano Salsa and Rustic Cajeta Apple Tarts with Berry "Salsa." Food and friends, food and family. Good cooking, for Rick, is the unspoken animator of friends and family as they gather to share a meal. Rick's recipes lend themselves to weeknight family meals or celebrations. Take part in a tamalada, the tamal-making party before the party, or the ritual of a barbacoa, an earthy experience that Rick has made possible with a kettle grill in the backyard. 24 color photographs of finished dishes Photographs of Mexican location shots throughout


About the Author
Rick Bayless has won our country's highest chef honors (James Beard Foundation's National Chef of the Year). He's also won our highest cookbook award for Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen (Julia Child/IACP Cookbook of the Year). His other cookbooks include Authentic Mexican and Salsas That Cook. His famed Chicago restaurants, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, have both won many awards, including the coveted Ivy Award. He lives in Chicago with his wife, Deann, and their daughter, Lane.

FROM OUR EDITORS

Our Review
Having grown up on California-Mexican food, I've always been reluctant to acknowledge that Mexican cooking could go beyond the familiar burritos and tacos that I loved. These drippingly delicious snacklike foods were so satisfying that I never felt the need to venture further into the cuisine. Rick Bayless, one of America's most brilliant chefs and a staunch proponent of classic Mexican cooking, has written his latest cookbook, Mexico One Plate at a Time, for people just like me. It was written because, as Rick recently told me, "most (North) Americans aren't at all familiar with the real cooking of our next-door neighbor Mexico, and I realized that we would have to take a big step to become acquainted with their classics -- like we began doing with Italian food about 25 years ago."

"Is this a book that Mexicans will also enjoy?" I asked. "Most definitely," answered Rick. "In Mexico One Plate at a Time we cover a broad spectrum of the classics of Mexican cooking -- the types of food that people know from one end of the Republic to the other. These are all recipes that would make a Mexican's mouth water at their mention."

Being a cookbook writer myself, I was particularly taken with the layout of Mexico One Plate at a Time: and I think that it will also have great appeal to home cooks. With each recipe, we are given an informative introduction, then the absolute best recipe possible, followed by Rick Bayless's contemporary take on the recipe, and finally a Question and Answer section that brings together any queries that the recipes might have provoked during testing. This came about, said Rick, because "I have spent over 25 years studying Mexican cooking, visiting the country, and reading cookbooks (some of which go back to the 1800s). All of this studying has made it possible for me to understand how to put together some perfect dishes. Sometimes we tested a recipe over 20 times, as I wanted to make sure that anyone cooking from Mexico One Plate at a Time would end up with the exact dish that I had created in my kitchen."

For Rick Bayless, one of the most exciting sidebars to this cookbook is the fact that it is the companion to his new 26-part PBS television series of the same name. Mexico One Plate at a Time began broadcasting in midsummer in some areas but will be seen on almost all public television stations by the late fall. In the series, as in the book, we see Rick (sometimes accompanied by his daughter, Lanie) in Mexico visiting markets, street stalls, restaurants, and home kitchens, and then we find him in his own backyard (often literally) re-creating the dishes he has discovered.

Both the series and the book, Mexico One Plate at a Time, for the first time truly bring the cuisine of this warm and friendly nation alive in the American kitchen. Rick Bayless has done a masterly job. This is a book that I will read for pleasure and cook from when I want to experience flavorful, fresh, and honest food. I believe that it will be a significant addition to the American cookbook library.

--Judith Choate

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Rick Bayless has been acclaimed widely as America's foremost proponent of Mexico's thrillingly diverse cuisine. In this companion book to his 26-part Public Television series, he takes us, with boyish enthusiasm, through Mexican markets, street stalls and home kitchens to bring us the great dishes of Mexico, one "plate" at a time. And each "plate" Rick presents here is a Mexican classic. Take guacamole, for instance. After teaching us the essentials for a perfect, classic guacamole, Rick shows how to spin contemporary interpretations, like his Roasted Poblano Guacamole with garlic and parsley. Rick's cuisine is always lively, but rooted in strong traditions.

Always the teacher, Rick begins each "plate" with some never-before-found features: traditional benchmarks (Rick's idea of the best guacamole), when to think of the recipes (weeknight dinners or casual party food), and advice for American cooks (Rick's insight into the ingredients that make the dish). He rounds out each "plate" with suggestions for working ahead.

To complete the journey into the Mexican mindset, Rick, with help from his testers, ends each "plate" with a question-and-answer section detailing just about everything a home cook might want to know: What are the best cuts of beef for grilled tacos? The best cheeses for quesadillas? Is one grill better than another? Rick draws from his years of living in Mexico, pulling us into the Mexican kitchen, to teach us how to create authentic Mexican dishes in our American kitchens.

Rick is an Indiana Jones of the stove, a Julia Child of Mexican cuisine in black jeans and a T-shirt. Rick's goal: to enable folks all across the United States to create dishes that weave inthe rich tapestry of Mexican flavor with ingredients that are widely available. He always provides ingredients that make the dish authentic, but he also delivers with the right substitute if an ingredient is hard to find.

Experience food you can't wait to make in a new and user-friendly cookbook that contains the full range of dishes -- Starters, Snacks and Light Meals; Soups, Stews and Sides; Entrées; Desserts and Drinks. Rick serves up such classic Mexican plates as Tomatillo-Braised Pork Loin, Quick-Fried Shrimp with Sweet Toasty Garlic, Chiles Rellenos, Cheesy Enchiladas Suizas, and Mexican Vanilla-Scented Flan.

And for an exciting taste of the unexpected, try Rick's contemporary interpretations of the classics -- Crispy Potato Sopes with Goat Cheese and Fresh Herbs, Grilled Salmon with Lemon-and-Thyme-Scented Salsa Veracruzana, Broiled Flank Steak with Tomato-Poblano Salsa and Rustic Cajeta Apple Tarts with Berry "Salsa."

Food and friends, food and family. Good cooking, for Rick, is the unspoken animator of friends and family as they gather to share a meal. Rick's recipes lend themselves to weeknight family meals or celebrations. Take part in a tamalada, the tamal-making party before the party, or the ritual of a barbacoa, an earthy experience that Rick has made possible with a kettle grill in the backyard.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Rarely has a cuisine been so epically dissected, analyzed, pined over and exemplified in the name of a tasty dinner. Indeed, cookbook is perhaps too tame a description for this latest venture from Bayless, the popular chef and author (Salsas That Cook, etc.). Each recipe begins with a stream-of-consciousness consideration that at times runs a bit too jolly. "No food translates into more carefree fun than a singing dish of queso fundido," declares the author. Following the lead-in, a paragraph provides the "Traditional Benchmark," wherein the ideal version of the dish is captured. Thus, readers learn what makes the perfect flan or Pozole (Pork and Hominy Stew). Next come a few words on "When to Think of These Recipes"--Chiles Rellenos when you're pulling out the stops, Tamales for hanging out with the gang. A third paragraph offers "Advice for American Cooks," such as what peppers you can substitute in your Adobado Chicken. Then, at last, come the recipes. Bayless provides both a traditional and contemporary version of most dishes. Among his many happy surprises are a relatively unknown "street-style" enchilada, which is dipped in chile sauce and quick fried, and a grilled Cactus Salad. Each recipe is followed by answers to Frequently Asked Questions. How saucy should the filling be for your taco? Or maybe just tune in and read along to the PBS version, with one of Bayless's Mango Coolers in hand. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.|

Library Journal

Bayless (Rick Bayless's Mexican Kitchen) is increasingly seen as America's foremost authority on Mexican cookery, and this book, the companion volume to his currently running PBS television series, should further that reputation. Just as in his previous cookbooks, Bayless communicates the sense of joy, satisfaction, and community to be found in traditional Mexican cookery. But he also delves more deeply into the ingredients and techniques involved in producing a wide variety of dishes, from simple sopes (little "boats" made of masa, filled with salsa and cheese, and shallow-fried in lard) and quesadillas to imaginative ceviches and moles. For each type of dish, he offers both traditional and contemporary recipes, reminding us that the strength of a great cuisine is its ability to adapt and evolve. There are helpful questions and answers at the end of each section, based on questions generated by recipe testers, an addition that may be unique to the cookbook genre. There is much here for both neophytes and experienced cooks. Highly recommended for all public libraries.--Tom Cooper, Richmond Heights Memorial Lib., MO Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Richard Corliss - Time

Was there ever a chef as passionate about a cuisine as Bayless is about Mexican food? Now that America is beyond the 'spaghetti-and-meatballs stage" of Italian cuisine, the award-winning Chicagochef is determined to move north-of-the-border cooks beyond the taco.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Rick Bayless sees in Mexican food the everyday personal celebration of life, art, and friendship across a table. His knowledge is so deep, his explanations can be simple. His recipes are lucid, allow for error, and encourage innovation. I tried the chilaquiles recipe as soon as I opened this book. The results were delicious, my friends were delighted, and we laughed and lingered late into the night. I think that's what Rick likes to help bring about with this lovely and lyrical book. (Scott Simon Host, National Public Radio's Weekend Edition with Scott Simon author of Home and Away: Memoir of a Fan)  — Scott Simon

I have long admired the work of Rick Bayless, both in his cookbooks and his two restaurants in Chicago. In Mexico One Plate at a Time he continues his passionate attempt to introduce us to a long ignored cuisine and this book should take his noble efforts over the top. It is a splendid book and anyone who cares about world cuisine will want it in their library. — Jim Harrison, Author of Legends of the Fall and The Road Home

I just love how Rick has given not only his contemporary recipes but the traditional as well. It's one of the best Mexican cookbooks I have seen. — Jean-Georges Vongerichten

In Rick Bayless's Mexico: One Plate at a Time, you will discover Mexican cooking as you've never had it in your life. Great dishes and easy techniques make this book a must — Jacques Pepin

Rick Bayless has the depth and breadth of knowledge about Mexican food traditions that most food writers can only dream of. What's more, his genius is a pragmatic one: he helps us learn why certain authentic preparations taste as marvelous as they do, so that we can confidently prepare them ourselves. Bayless is as vital to the culinary exchange between the U.S. and Mexico as Carlos Fuentes is to our binational literature. Viva Ricardo! — Gary Nabhan, MacArthur Award-winning ethnobotanist and author of Coming Home to Eat

Rick Bayless managed to make my mouth water and my mind leave New York (direction Mexico!) all in one book. His recipes are incredibly appetizing and his Q&A section at the end of each chapter is both inspired and incredibly helpful . There is not a doubt in my mind that this book and it's related PBS series will be a resounding success — Daniel Boulud

Rick Bayless's passion and thorough knowledge of authentic Mexican food has truly changed our minds and our palates! Great food! — Emeril Lagasse