The Migrant Chef: The Life and Times of Lalo García by Laura Tillman is, to my mind, the best food book published in 2023. As is true only of books that tell a good story, it gives us insight into the all too real forces and systems at work behind one person’s story.
Lalo García has been lauded in recent years as a celebrity chef. His Máximo Bistrot in Mexico City is frequently named one of Mexico’s best restaurants, chosen Best International Restaurant in Mexico City by Food and Wine, listed among Latin America’s 50 Best Restaurants, and featured on Eva Longoria’s CNN series In Search of Mexico. But García’s story is anything but a typical rise of a renowned chef.
After spending years interviewing and observing García, his family, and his restaurants, Tillman, an astute journalist with an ethnographer’s patience, begins with the story of a family...
University of California Press