What does food really mean to us? Sure cases going. Stops a stomach from rumbling. But the tastes and textures of the food we love touch something deeper than hunger. One woman who knows all about that is my guess Pat -- Pati Jinich. It propelled her from shaft -- one career to. Pati Jinich is stopped by her studio to talk about her new took part . Mexican today new and rediscovered recipes for the contemporary kitchen. Let's talk that -- about that are lower. As a political policy analysts. Why was that urge so powerful in your life. I feel I was always attracted to food. In a Mexico food is gigantic. It is not only what nurtures you and keeps you it gives meaning to every day every moment work every birthday. Has a food related occasion. I think I got very nostalgic for Mexican food when it moved to the US. I wanted to continue on the track that I had done to be a political analyst. I kept yanking myself back I had many adventures in the Third World and I kept thinking I have to go in the straight line. Until one day I had a -- I had annexed extensional crisis. I jumped into the culinary arts and never look back. Your heritage is European Jewish. Your birthplace was in Mexico. With that rich cultural tradition, what kind of foods and recipes you do you remember from childhood? So many, so many colors. Many years, as recent as two or three years until I have been able to piece all of my puzzle pieces together and they were masters at combining their European and Jewish and inheritance with the newfound richness and a warmth and colors from Mexico. Mexico has been a country that him placed all the immigrant ways and allowed for those cuisines to receive that warm Mexican stand. And you came to this country you are blonde, blue-eyed, you encountered some stereotypical ideas of what Mexicans look out -- look like. Are there stare at -- are they steering typical ideas of what Mexican food looks like? Yes. That is what I try to break every day. Not only about what Mexico food is but what Mexican culture is. But what Mexicans look like. But for whatever reason some dishes have made it to the mainstream in the US. The hard shell taco. The Tex-Mex combo. Nothing wrong with those but those are nothing but a number in millions and millions of possibilities. Can you give us an example of a contemporary recipe that you have in your book # One of them, my favorite now, is shrimp roll. Where I fried bacon. Remove the bacon. And in that rendered fat I could garlic and ginger and with that I make a vinaigrette here I mix that with Sherry vinegar, little mustard, mango, avocado, crumbled bacon. Cook the shrimp in a little butter and back to the role and do a -- into an avocado manga thing on top of the shrimp roll. It is incredible. It takes 15 minutes. There is an ongoing debate, Patty in the 30 world about who gets to cook other people's cuisine. Should a white chef be cooking Mexico. Or an American cook Korean. What is your take on that? My thought is let's cook and be happy. Cooking cuisine, recipes, the table, that is why am so happy wide transferral to to the culinary work from political analyst. There is no place more noble to shared differences in food than the table. I think anybody has a right to cook what ever they want. I think we have to have a little bit of respect for certain things. Certain techniques. Certain ingredients. Not because we drop a jalapeno in a noodle soup does it make it Mexican. Then again, [Indiscernible]. I think the kitchen should be an open place for the discussion. Fusion existed in the 16th century. It is also very important to realize when some experience are successful and may become a classic and when they are regrettable and need to be removed. I think anybody can pay homage to traditional foods and to all kinds of cuisines and I say cook and be happy. The new season of your TV show is going to air beyond KPBS this fall. Can you give us a bit of the preview. It is so much fun. I am just laughing thinking about it. We went to the Yucatán Peninsula and we went all over the place. To Yucatán and [Indiscernible - name] and we went inside the homes of really generous cooks and people that cook in highbrow rest Johnson height a -- and markets. So far season five will be the best. That is wonderful. The name of your newest cookbook is Mexican today, new and rediscovered recipes for contemporary kitchen. I have been speaking with the chef Pati Jinich pick Pati it is delightful to speak to you. Thank you for having me.
The professional goals of a political analyst don't usually involve chopping onions or whipping up egg whites in the kitchen, but for Chef Pati Jinich, this was just the case.
Born and raised in Mexico City, Jinich left her career as an accomplished political analyst with an emphasis in Latin American studies to pursue her passion as a chef.
Her show "Pati's Mexican Table" debuted in 2011, and its fifth season premieres on KPBS TV in September.
Jinich's first cookbook, "Pati's Mexican Table: The Secrets of Real Mexican Home Cooking," was published in 2013 and ended up on the best cookbook lists of the New York Times, Washington Post and Amazon.
Her newest cookbook is "Mexican Today: New and Rediscovered Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen."
"My intention with this book is to share that food with you, food that reflects the cuisine I grew up on, and that also reveals the way cultures and food ways have merged and changed both north and south of the border," Jinich states in the book's introduction.
Jinich shares some of her favorite recipes on KPBS Midday Edition Monday.
