La Frontera in a Nacho

Six-time James Beard Award winner, Emmy-nominated host, and New York Times best-selling author Pati Jinich has spent her career proving that the food of the US-Mexico borderlands isn't fusion. It is its own permanent, ever-evolving place, full of stories most people never get to hear.

Chef Claudia Sandoval and Pati trace their food memories back to a marbled pound cake eaten square by square in front of a Pedro Infante movie, a grandfather who fled poverty in Poland, and a plate of huevo rancheros ruined by a curious kid who wanted every spice in the cabinet at once. Along the way, they talk about why "fusion" is the wrong word for what happens at the border, the Japanese American ranching family raising Wagyu-style cattle on corn masa in the Rio Grande Valley, and the real, proudly Mexican history of the nacho.

They discuss language, legacy, and why the recipes we inherit were never really ours to begin with. We're just the ones lucky enough to carry them for a while.

New episodes every Wednesday.

You can find Pati Jinich on Instagram @patijinich and purchase her new book, Foods of La Frontera, out September 15th.

Follow along on Instagram ⁠@bitefullypod⁠ and ⁠@chefclaudiasandoval⁠

Host & Executive Producer: Claudia Sandoval | Producer: Shei Yu I Executive Producer: Saadia Khan I Sound Designer & Editor: Lou Raskin | Theme Music: Lou Raskin | Other Music: Epidemic Sound | Cover Art: Mike Fennessy

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