Most people know Rick Bayless from winning the title of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters, beating out the French and Italian chefs with his authentic Mexican cuisine. His highly rated Public Television series, Mexico–One Plate at a Time, was also broadcast coast to coast and has earned him multiple Daytime Emmy nominations for Best Culinary Host.
Rick has nine cookbooks. His second book, Mexican Kitchen, won the Julia Child IACP cookbook of the year award in 1996, and his fourth book, Mexico–One Plate at a Time won James Beard Best International Cookbook of the Year award in 2001. Fiesta at Rick’s spent a number of weeks on the New York Times best seller list.
Rick’s side by side award-winning restaurants are in Chicago. The casual Frontera Grill was founded in 1987 and received the James Beard Foundation’s highest award, Outstanding Restaurant, in 2007. The 4-star Toplobampo, which served its first meals in 1991, earned the Beard Foundation’s award for Outstanding Restaurant in 2017 — an unprecedented feat for side-by-side restaurants. Topolobampo has also earned and maintained a one Michelin Star rating since the Michelin Guide came to Chicago in 2011.
The wildly popular, LEED GOLD-certified, fast-casual Xoco has been around since 2009, serving wood-oven tortas, steaming caldos, golden churros and bean-to-cup Mexican hot chocolate. In 2018, Rick and his daughter Lanie opened Bar Sótano, a speakeasy-style mezcal bar with modern Mexican bar food.
Rick’s quick-service Tortas Frontera restaurants have changed the face of food service at O’Hare International Airport, while Tortazo has brought Frontera flavors to Willis Tower, Times Square, and other location in U.S. His award-winning Frontera line of salsas, cooking sauces and organic chips are also found coast to coast in grocery stores.
In 2016, Chef Bayless opened Frontera Cocina in Disney Springs which continues to treat Disney visitors in Orlando, Florida to the highest quality ingredients and authentic preparations of classic Mexican dishes.
Rick and his staff established the Frontera Farmer Foundation in 2003 to support small Midwestern farms. Each year, grants are awarded to farmers for capital improvements to their family farms, encouraging greater production and profitability. To date, the Foundation has awarded nearly 200 grants totaling nearly $2 million. In 2007, Bayless and his team launched the Frontera Scholarship, a full tuition scholarship that sends a Mexican-American Chicago Public School student to Kendall College to study culinary arts. In 2007 Rick was awarded the Humanitarian of the Year by the International Association of Culinary Professionals for his many philanthropic endeavors.
Rick has received a great number of James Beard Award nominations in many categories, and he has won seven: Midwest Chef of the Year, National Chef of the Year, Humanitarian of the Year, Who’s Who of American Food and Drink, Best Podcast, plus two for his cookbooks.
The Government of Mexico has bestowed on Rick the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle–the highest decoration bestowed on foreigners whose work has benefitted Mexico and its people.
Not just a successful Chef and Restauranteur, Rick’s penchant for the arts has led him to create and star in the multi-theatre, immersive hit Cascabel, which offered theatre-goers the story of a meal, told through flavor, memory, song, dance, and amazing physical feats at Lookingglass Theatre and the Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Yes, Chef Rick Bayless dances, and he does it so well, he won Chicago’s Dancing with Chicago Celebrities Competition in 2006.
In 2016, he earned the Julia Child Foundation Award, a prestigious honor given to “an individual who has made a profound and significant impact on the way America cooks, eats and drinks.” And Chef Rick Bayless is still working tirelessly at his Chicago restaurants, helping mentor young chefs, teach curious home cooks on his YouTube channel, and continue to fight for a better tomorrow with better food, better entertainment, and, as always, the best margaritas.
