Most people know Chef Rick Bayless from winning the inaugural season of Bravo’s Top Chef Masters. Others know him from the twelve seasons of his highly-rated Public Television series, Mexico–One Plate at a Time or his nine award-winning cookbooks. And for a few restaurant regulars, he is simply Chef Rick, the Chef and owner of Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, Xoco, and Bar Sótano on Clark Street in Chicago, where he has spread the joys of authentic Mexican cuisine since 1987.
Frontera Grill 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 accomplishment for side-by-side restaurants. At Topolobampo, Rick has also achieved a different feat: earning and maintaining a Michelin star since the guide first came to Chicago.
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. And 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.”
