The ninth season of chef Rick Bayless' cooking and travel series explores the cuisine and culture of Oaxaca — Mexico's fifth-largest state — from its capital, Oaxaca City, to the small coastal town of Puerto Angel. Rick explores regal ruined cities, craft villages, colorful markets, and beloved old churches and town plazas; paddles through wildlife-rich coastal mangrove lagoons and hikes tropical rainforest trails; visits off-the-beaten-path restaurants and food stalls, and takes in the stunning Day of the Dead festivities.
Recipes
Get all of Rick's recipes from season nine of MEXICO - ONE PLATE AT A TIME.
Behind-The-Scenes Oaxaca
Our crafty producers are following the ONE PLATE film crew to Mexico and back, creating a fun and informative series of behind-the-scenes video blogs showcasing the foods, the flavors, the stories and the fun of Mexico’s Oaxaca.
In every episode, Rick meets Oaxaca's artisans, including weavers, potters, small-batch mescal producers and boutique cheese-makers. He also cooks — and occasionally fishes and hunts for wild game — alongside Oaxaca’s finest chefs, home cooks and market vendors. At his home kitchen, Rick then translates the intricate cooking of Oaxaca into everyday dishes for American kitchens.
"Oaxaca's Live-Fire Cooking" - Everything tastes better cooked over a wood or charcoal fire – at least that’s the Oaxacan credo. From soup to barbacoa, burning embers influence the flavor of Oaxaca’s food in just the right ways.
For starters, Rick guides us through the “taco corridor” at the 20 de Noviembre market just off the main square in Oaxaca. We can almost taste the richly-burnished chiles and onions as they grill alongside super-thinly sliced beef and pork and robust chorizo sausages. Then we see hot rocks plucked from the glowing embers and dropped into hot soup for making caldo de piedra (stone soup), a specialty from the village of San Felipe Usila.
La Capilla, a campestre (open air) restaurant, in the town of Zaachilla, has served lamb and goat barbacoa for more than 47 years. Rick’s so enamored with the process of burying the chile-seasoned meat in glowing embers that he creates his own version on the backyard grill. Served with Oaxacan pasilla tomatillo salsa, there’s meat, fire and smoke in every bite.
Chef Bayless is on Facebook, and you can follow @Rick_Bayless on Twitter.
