Présenté comme Dame de l’année à L’ACF, Madame Bayless. La femme du fameux chef Rick Bayless. Femme très actif et une des femmes en charge des dames d’escoffier. Des émissions de télévision, aux bouquins, aux restaurants, au support des fermiers, des donations, elle est partout. Ci-dessous un petit récap de ce quel fait.

Deann was born in 1948 in St. Charles, Illinois, into a family who found their calling in the major professions (law and medicine), but whose father knew the pleasure of fine dining. She took an undergraduate degree in English language and literature at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois, then graduate studies in English and Theater at the University of Michigan. After receiving two masters degrees, her path made an unexpected turn into the world of good food when she married Rick Bayless in 1979 and went on a two month honeymoon/research trip to Mexico.

Deann produces the highly rated on-going Public Television Series, Mexico—One Plate at a Time (in it’s 8th season) that can be found on television sets coast to coast, and is co-author of seven award- winning cookbooks. Rick and Deann’s second book, Mexican Kitchen, won the Julia Childs IACP cookbook of the year award in 1996, and the fourth book, Mexico—One Plate at a Time won James Beard Best International Cookbook of the Year award in 2001.Their side by side award-winning restaurants in Chicago were founded in 1987. The casual Frontera Grill and the 4-star Topolobampo. In 2007, Frontera Grill won for Outstanding Restaurant by the James Beard Organization.

Their award-winning Frontera line of salsas, grilling sauces and organic chips can be found coast to coast. On the local front, Rick, Deann and their staff began the Frontera Farmer Foundation in 2003 to attract support for small Midwestern farms. Each year, grants are given to our local farmers for capital improvements to their family farms. In 2007, the Bayless’s and their team launched the Frontera Scholarship: a full tuition scholarship that will send a Mexican-American student to Kendall Culinary College to study the culinary arts. The Bayless’s opened their third restaurant: XOCO—a quick serve LEED certified restaurant featuring house-ground chocolate and wood grilled tortas. This year, Tortas Frontera opened in Terminal 1 at Chicago’s Ohare airport, with plans for another in Terminal 3.

Rick and Deann’s latest book, Fiesta at Rick’s (WW. Norton) is currently on the New York Times Best seller list.