Rick Bayless: the flavors of Mexico
One of America's noted authorities on Mexican cuisine, Rick Bayless, shared with us his thoughts on how he captures and portrays the flavors of Mexico in his two celebrated Mexican restaurants, Frontera Grill and Topolobampo.

Interview by Cathy Nash Holley

The regional flavors of Mexico

Rick Bayless divides Mexico into six culinary regions, each with it's own unique style, influences and ingredients: Central Mexico illustrates the duality of the Spaniard and the Aztec, the modern and the primitive, ranging from Mexico City's most elegant restaurants to Tolucan Indian produce vendors with their herbs and colorful array of wild mushrooms. Southern Mexico, particularly Oaxaca, exhibits a vital Indian heritage, with a remarkable variety of dried peppers mixed into Mexico's most varied sauces and stews. It is savory, well-spiced fare redolent with sweet spices like cloves and cinnamon. West-Central Mexico is thoroughly mestizo. It is the essence of national flavors drizzled on crispy fried pork carnitas or sprinkled in a bowl of pozole. It is the home of mariachis and tequila, of fried tacos and red-chile enchiladas. The Gulf states are warm tropical states that rise up from the coastal waters to cool mountains known for good coffee. The land of simple, well-seasoned cooking — fish with tomatoes, herbs and olives, spicy crab soup, turnovers and butter-fried plantains. The Yucatan is Mayan, and its original settlers were a progressive, independent lot. The regional specialties are among Mexico's most unusual: from the pork in banana leaves to the egg-stuffed, pumpkinseed-sauced papadzules. The diverse Northern Mexico: smoky hot embers give character to fish on the west coast, kid around Monterrey and steaks nearly everywhere. Northern flavors are forthright, frontier flavors — just the kind to wrap in warm flour tortillas.

Q. What flavors do you work with to capture Mexican cuisine, and what ingredients comprise these flavors?

I work with a traditional set of flavors that I learned in Mexico. Mexican cuisine is regionally divided, and part of my mission is to present the full gamut of Mexican flavors.

I want to learn from the regional cooks of Mexico, and use ingredients true to their cooking. I could easily infuse other ingredients into these dishes — lemongrass, for example; they grow lemongrass in Mexico and make it into an herb tea, but I choose not to incorporate it into my Mexican cooking.

Ingredients vary from region to region, but there is a classic Mexican combination of black pepper, cloves, cinnamon, Mexican oregano. Cilantro figures in, though not to the exclusion of other ingredients. Wild greens are also popular.

Mexico is historically one of the world's most complex cuisines. I have over 100 volumes dedicated to the history of Mexican cuisines. It's one of the few countries that has always opened its arms to flavors from around the world, with influences originally springing from pre-Colombian, then from all over the world, including Spain, France, the Far East, Arab Nations, the Caribbean.

Q. What opportunities or challenges did you find in opening a Mexican restaurant in Chicago?

There was a reason we chose to open a Mexican restaurant in Chicago, and that was because it was the best place in the country to do so. I'm always surprised to find that people don't realize that Chicago has the second largest Mexican population in the country. In fact, there's a greater abundance of fresh masa corn tortilla factories here than anywhere else in the country. Plus, Mexican food already has many regional cuisines in America — California has its own Mexican cuisine, Texas has Tex-Mex; New Mexico has Southwest — but in Chicago nothing had taken hold, so it was a perfect place to open without being locked into the already-established American-Mexican cuisines.

I wasn't introducing Mexican cuisine into Chicago. What's really native here is Native American, so in some ways I'm bringing the native cuisine back.

Q. Are there any Mexican dishes you've rejected because they just wouldn't fly in America?

If we feel a dish is not going to be acceptable, then we just won't put it on our menu.

In Oaxaca, a popular dish is toasted grasshopper tacos. One Mexican restaurant here in Chicago features them on their menu all the time. But people eat it because they think it's weird, not because they like it. I choose not to offer this because it won't help me. This isn't "Americanizing" my menu, but I'm choosing to put on my menu the things I know will achieve my goal of broadening the culinary awareness of a certain culture.

But the menu is a constantly evolving process. There are occasionally dishes that at first seem too weird for our menu, but we figure out a way to slide it in there as a sampler plate, and eventually we offer it all the time. Who knows? Maybe we'll be offering toasted grasshopper tacos someday.

Q. How much of Mexican cuisine is the spicy/ hot factor?

This is a stereotype of Mexican cuisine — a lot of Mexican foods are not spicy. Thai or Indian foods are much hotter than anything you would find in Mexican cuisine. Up until now, there wasn't much presence of other hotter foods like Thai or Indian in this country, but now that these cuisines are taking hold, people are waking up to the fact that Mexican isn't the hottest food around. It's true that Mexico uses a greater variety of chiles than anywhere in the world, but not all are hot.

To the disappointment of some of our customers, we try to keep our cuisine traditional to Mexico, which means many of our dishes aren't too hot or spicy. But people in Chicago love spicy foods, so we work to keep a couple of hot dishes on the menu. Sometimes we have to cheat towards spicier rather than less spicy to meet our customers' expectations.

In other dishes, heat naturally becomes an element in a dish that's cooked really well — a mole, for example. The flavors become so well woven together.

Q. Have you found that Americans are more willing to experience more flavor in their dining experience?

As a chef, if you're not all about flavor these days there is no hope for you. Just look at the resurgence in casual bistros and brasseries. Traditionally these concepts are not exactly known for their flavor, but compare them to how they were 10 years ago, and you'll notice a drastic increase in flavor.

I think in America, we're on a road of trying to find an American cuisine. The 1950s were without a doubt the lowest point in American cuisine. America was losing its regional cuisines, dining on TV dinners, all the while waving the banner of progress. Well it wasn't progress; there was nowhere to go but up.

Q. How far beyond food do you go to give the diner the overall experience of Mexican flavor?

We work really hard to do that. I don't think you can just dress a restaurant up and offer patrons an authentic experience. Cooking is part of culture, and if you can't share some of that, then you've missed the point. We offer what I like to call a "generosity of spirit" and this comes across clearly in our restaurant. We capture this spirit of Mexico not just in our food, but in our music, our tableware, and most importantly in how we interact with our customers.

Q. How do you incorporate Mexican flavors and ingredients into desserts on your menu?

The tradition of desserts in Mexico is very distinct; it doesn't fit well into American dessert menus. Mexican desserts are generally small portions with intense flavors, like brittles made out of pumpkin or sesame seeds, or a cake soaked with sweet syrup, or cajeta — caramelized goat's milk, similar to a pudding. There is also a strong French influence in Mexican pastries, especially in Mexico City.

At the restaurant, we use these traditional desserts as a jumping-off point and weave them into more plated American-style desserts. Or we might take a traditional American dessert and give it a Mexican twist — like an individual cake served warm with Mexican chocolate. Traditional Mexican sweets don't fit seamlessly into our menu without our doing something to make them work.

Q. How do you bring your passion for Mexican flavors to the front of the house?

With massive amounts of training, and with being here in the restaurant. I'm a real hands-on operator. We have an all-staff meeting on Tuesday afternoons, and I try to be here for that. I spend evenings hanging out at the line, and I'm also focused on being available to talk with people.

We change the menu from top to bottom every two weeks, then we have a meeting to prepare the new dishes for the staff. Additionally, every Fourth of July we take a staff trip to Mexico. We take about 35 of our people with us and visit a different region each year, spending four days being immersed into the culture.

Q. Will you ever expand beyond Mexican cuisine?

You know, my wife and I just celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary by going to Paris. On the way to the airport, I was reminiscing over the last 20 years, and I've come to a realization that my youthful openness to the entire world has gone away, and that no matter what I dream of, this is where my heart is. I also realize there's still so much for me to learn about the cooking and culture of Mexico. The country, the Mexican culture itself really enriches me.

Former James Beard Chef of the Year Rick Bayless is chef/owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo in Chicago, two of the country's most acclaimed Mexican restaurants. Bayless has authored several books, including his latest, Salsas That Cook, and is working on a series on the food of Mexico for PBS, to air in the summer of 2000. fronterain@aol.com