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Title details for The Migrant Chef by Laura Tillman - Available

The Migrant Chef

The Life and Times of Lalo García

by Laura Tillman
Cindy Kay
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
A chef’s gripping quest to reconcile his childhood experiences as a migrant farmworker with the rarefied world of fine dining.

Born in rural Mexico, Eduardo “Lalo” García Guzmán 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, Máximo Bistrot, he began to craft food that narrated his memories and hopes.
Mexico City–based journalist Laura Tillman spent five years immersively reporting on Lalo’s story: from Máximo’s kitchen to the onion fields of Vidalia, Georgia, to Dubai’s first high-end Mexican restaurant, to Lalo’s hometown of San José de las Pilas. What emerges is a moving portrait of Lalo’s 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 family’s border-eclipsing dreams, Mexico’s culinary heritage, and the making of a chef.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    May 23, 2023

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9780593791172
      • File size: 194672 KB
      • Duration: 06:45:33

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • AudioFile Magazine
      Cindy Kay has a pleasing voice and a keen sense of drama. A stylish narrator, she mimics languages well. All her skills are well displayed in this biography of Mexican chef Eduardo "Lalo" Garc�a, who heads one of the hemisphere's best restaurants, Maximo Bistrot, in Mexico City. The audiobook traces the twisty road of the celebrity chef from the time he came to the U.S. as a farm worker to his imprisonment and then deportation to his native Mexico. Along the way, Lalo, who had extraordinary natural talent, learned from some great chefs, Eric Repert of Le Bernardin fame among them. Today Garc�a runs Lalo!, Havre 77, and his flagship, Maximo, and is celebrated as an innovator and a supporter of farm-to-table cuisine, as well as traditional agriculture methods. A.D.M. © AudioFile 2023, Portland, Maine
    • Library Journal

      October 1, 2023

      Mexico City--based journalist Tillman (The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts) draws upon five years of immersive research, offering a gripping and inspiring story of one of Mexico's most renowned chefs, Eduardo "Lalo" Garc�a Guzm�n. When he was a child, Lalo and his family crossed the border into the United States in search of a better life. Lalo began working as a field laborer when he was 10 years old, harvesting and planting produce alongside his family as they traveled from Florida to Michigan. Through backbreaking labor in the fields and grueling work in Atlanta kitchens, Lalo eventually found a passion for food. Although a robbery conviction, incarceration, and subsequent deportation presented hardships, he was undeterred and continued to support his family while working toward his dreams. Narrator Cindy Kay vividly tells Lalo's story, detailing his growth as a chef and his professional successes, including the establishment of his acclaimed Mexico City restaurant M�ximo Bistrot, which was followed by Lalo! and Havre 77. Kay engagingly conveys Tillman's lush descriptions of Mexico City's food scene, from sourcing ingredients to reinterpreting culinary traditions. VERDICT Tillman's spellbinding story of this extraordinary chef and his journey is not to be missed. For fans of uplifting biographies highlighting food, culture, and history.--Enica Davis

      Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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