About this item
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.
About the Author
Laura Tillman is an award-winning writer and freelance journalist whose work has appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, The Wall Street Journal, and Pacific Standard, among other publications. She holds an MFA in Creative Nonfiction from Goucher College and a BA in International Studies from Vassar College. Her first book, "The Long Shadow of Small Ghosts: Murder and Memory in an American City," was published in April, 2016 by Scribner. You can find more information at lauratillman.net