How Mexican Food Evolved in Chicago | No Passport Required with Marcus Samuelsson | Full Episode

Viewers like you make this program possible. Support your local PBS station. Whoa, whoa, whoa. This is the good stuff. This is tongue taco? Mm-hmm. Tongue taco. Yeah, tongue, yeah. Oh, this is beautiful. Awesome. Is it good? This is so good. Oh, my God. Ooh. Oh, wow. This is amazing. Is it like a three-star Michelin dish, this one? I mean, think about it. The preparation, the texture of the tortilla. We just take it for granted because it's affordable. Right. If this would be $100, it would still be value for money. Do you know what I mean? Right. You know how messed up that is? Yeah. But the good thing about that is, Chief, that it is here. Yeah, no, no. I'm not suggesting raising the prices. I'm just saying this is gold right in front of you. You guys value it because it's here. It's in your neighborhood. I feel like the Mexican community in America is what made America taste great again, right? So they should have a big thank you. You take away the Mexican-American community. In this country, our food does not taste good. That's hands down. Every chef that I've ever worked with would agree with that. I agree with that, too. You know? I mean, what would it taste like? I have no idea. No idea. Harshell tacos are not that tasty, but I will eat them sometimes. You don't like that. Oh, my God. I'm Chef Marcus Samuelsson, and as an immigrant born in Ethiopia and raised in Sweden, food to me has always told a deeper, more personal story. It's a pass to culture, identity, and history. Now it's a party. I'm going across the country to learn more about America's immigrant communities and culinary traditions to see how food connects us all across the United States. Chicago is an amazing food city. Actually one of the best in the country. It's also the home of some of the best chefs ever in this country. The James Beard Awards holds its big awards there, which is really the Oscars of the food world. There's also a really cool emerging Mexican food movement that is really creating dishes at the highest level. Mexican food is very often thought of in this country as inexpensive fast food. Just road food that we have learned to love. But there's a whole new generation of Mexican chefs that really are putting a new value proposition of what Mexican-American food can and should be. I was surprised to know that almost 2 million Mexican-Americans call Chicago home. Mexicans have been coming to Chicago for over 100 years to find work and contribute tremendously to this incredible city. They've created tight-knit communities in areas such as Little Village, Back of the Yard, and Pilsen, which is really considered the heart of the Latino community today. But it's a really challenging time for the Mexican-American community today, from building the wall, to ice raids, to ending DACA. These policies are threatening the people, the culture, and the food scene. But not only throughout Chicago, but actually throughout the whole country. The restaurant and hospitality industry, without the Mexican contribution, the Mexican laborer, would collapse. That's how vital the Mexican-American community is in America. This is a lovely spot. It's not my place, but you're always welcome. You picked it, so... Yeah, I picked it. It's a favorite. So we're talking about a convenience store, a butcher shop, a bar, and a taqueria all in one. All in one. You couldn't get any better than that. In Hotel California, you can never leave, right? Exactly. My buddy Juan is an artist in the south side of Chicago. I have different ideas that I've explored through my work. Adaptation is one of them. In Chicago, you constantly have to adapt to different communities and different situations. I go around looking for materials all throughout the city, in alleyways, in buildings, flea markets. I love materials of triumph, direction, and I love materials of failure. I utilize these materials to create installations that sort of make a connection to the viewer, that there is something more here in East TI. You were born in Mexico, right? Yeah, I was born there. What region? I was born in northern Mexico in the state of Chihuahua. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What was the food you grew up with in Chihuahua like? Well, Chihuahua is a place of lots of meat. It goes with the agricultural parts of it, so it's weeds and meats and cattle ranching and all that. The way they grill beef is differently in every state because every state has their own methods. The way that I grew up, everyday food had a lot to do with meat. Hey, how are you, man? Oh, man. What do we got? Explain to me what we got. So, Cecina, this is like beef jerky tacos, in a way. And I really like that this one is complimented with beans in it, which I've never seen that before in a taco, right? That's really good. You tell me what you think. Oh, it's so delicious. This is the perfect bite because it's strong meat, you have some avocado, you have some corn tortillas. You have everything. Really, really delicious. Exactly. You have everything in one bite. This is Cecina. It doesn't even taste like beef jerky. It doesn't even feel like beef jerky. And I don't know how you constituted to get that. And this is really also a preserving technique, right? Right. Because it's been air-dried and some spices on it. Right, exactly. I mean, that is the old way of cooking. Oh, you got more? Oh, my favorite. Nice. I love this stuff. The texture of cactus is so great. It's like so slimy and good, man. And it's so good for you. Oh, it's healthy? Oh, of course it's healthy. It's green. Yeah, yeah. Are you talking about this is the new kale? This is the new bucket of broth? It is the new kale, you know. Of course. Yeah, I loved it as a kid, and, you know, growing up in northern Mexico, this is, you have this a lot. It has that okra slime in it. It's true. But now it also has that sophistication almost of a French bean or something like that, right? I love it. Great. This is great. This is a grill. So you're in the ranch, at home, learning a craft, and you're a country boy. And then you come into this massive, big city, urban Chicago. That must have been a culture shock for you. The culture was different, definitely. I mean, if you can imagine, I came here in the winter of 85, maybe it was like going on 86. I show up to 7th grade wearing a nice cowboy shirt with, like, you know, this nap button, furless button, and, like, tight wranglers and cowboy boots. And it was like, and everybody is like, it's Chicago in 86. Dude, that's my look! That's my look! And everybody's wearing, like, you know, parachute pants, breakdancing, or if not that, they're looking like Michael Jackson, like Thriller. You know, so it was like a media culture shock. Like, who the hell is this kid? Who is this kid? And then, you know, adaptation was rough. You know, Chicago was rough. Trying to adapt to here, I found kids on my block that were skateboarding, and I was like, hey, I can do that. And it sort of, like, opened up a whole new avenue for me. Our tour in the Stockyard District, which was essential for the first generation of Mexican-Americans coming to Chicago, working in industries like meatpacking. If you were an immigrant, you came to this community in Chicago. You came to this area. And so, historically, Canaryville is mostly Irish. And it still remains that way. Bridgeport is Italian and Irish, and now Chinese. And then you have Englewood that's African-American. The back of the yard is very much Mexican. And then we see that point over there, that's the entrance to the Stockyard District, the eastern entrance. Cool. All that area in there used to be corrals. That's where the cows and pigs and sheep and horses that were brought here for slaughter, that's the area that it used to be. Now, if you can think about the magnitude of it, we're talking about 10 square blocks on either direction. Can you imagine just the stench? Thick in the air. How far back do you go, about 100 years maybe? 100 years, yeah. From what I understand, the first migration of work for the Mexican community in Chicago came through the steel mills. And then the second was migration out of the steel mills to work in the stockyards to come and work in this community. So always blue-collar, lots of work. It was always blue-collar. But it's also like, if you think about the people that were migrating, they were people from rural Mexico, not necessarily from cities of Mexico. They were migrating here because they knew the work, right? You're hardworking, you know, you work with your hands. And in the stockyards, it's a natural progression for the history of, you know, of meat in America, you know? Like, convoys came from Mexico. The idea of convoys is a Mexican thing, right? So it was very easy for them, like, let's work at the stockyards. Mexicans started arriving in Chicago by the trains that connected Mexico with the industrial Midwest, like almost any other immigrant group that came to Chicago to work. By the 1920s, there were already Spanish masses in the archdiocese, and there were definitely neighborhoods that were starting to form Mexican communities. The mural behind me is a painting by a Mexican muralist, Hector Duarte. Our city has many of his works. The mural depicts Gulliver and really sort of depicted the Mexican community. In other words, it's a giant who wakes up in a foreign land, and it takes a while for this giant to understand what's going on and what are the differences. The Mexican community is seen as a giant in Chicago because there's over 1.7 million in the metropolitan area. Unfortunately, one of the downsides of Chicago is that it is a very segregated city. It has a lot of negative things about it, but obviously one of the silver linings is that if you stay in a neighborhood and you share churches and stores and restaurants, the culture stays intact. Right now I'm heading to see my friend Diana. She has this incredible neighborhood spot called Mitokaya, and today we're going to work on the menu to celebrate her one-year anniversary. Hola. Hey! How are you? For me? Congratulations. Thank you. One year? Diana is super talented, but she's also focusing on transforming how her guests will think about Mexican food, and she really represents the next generation of exciting Mexican-American chefs. How's it going? It's going well. I love this coat. Thank you. I'm ready to cook. Let's do it. Yeah! I'm Diana Davila from Mitokaya Antojeria in Chicago. I am first-generation Mexican from here in Chicago. A lot of times when you ask someone who's Mexican or of Mexican heritage, where do you go for Mexican food? What's your favorite restaurant? And a lot of times you get the same answer. La casa de mi mamá, de mi tía, de mi abuela. And I really want to kind of have that be Mitokaya, but also I want to take that and grow. I'd like to think that I'm sort of a licuadora of Mexican traditions and Mexican food. I have really combined how generation upon generation, how women cook for their families with the techniques of creativity as a professional cook. I take traditional recipes and want to make it into my own. I have two children, I'm a wife, I'm a daughter, I'm a sister. Here, you know, Mitokaya really almost embodies like the superwoman that I want to be, where I get to put all of them together and be myself. What's the dish that we're doing? I want to get into this. I want to know, I want to learn. So tell me, what are we doing? Okay, well, you're going to take on mole verde. Mole verde. Yeah. I love that. Some green mole. That's nice. I'm taking it easy on you. It's one of the easier moles. Thank you. Thank you very much. But it's really herbaceous. It's not so known, and I feel like it's perfect. Because I think when people think here of mole, it's like, oh, it's the sauce with the chocolate into it. Mole really actually just means a concoction of many ingredients and a balance. I love that this is a mole with not a lot of ingredients, and there's still 20 ingredients here, so that's good. Yes, yes, yes. What do we do? Do we roast them? Do we char them? What do we do? That's exactly right. So we're going to take these tomatillos. Let's soak them in a little bit of cold water. Okay. Just so we can kind of release them from their tusks. Was this your auntie's recipe? Is this yours? I mean, who taught you how to cook this food? Because you're basically a South Side girl. That's it, right? No, that's not it. I'm a creative, creative person. Don't put baby in a corner. So, you know, they're not really even necessarily recipes. You know, there's many times I found myself asking my aunts or my mom, anybody in the family, well, como haces esto? You know, like, well, how do you make this? And the first response is always like, I don't know. What do you mean? Because, you know, most of the time it's recipes that they've been doing. Dishes, I should say, that they've been doing. So really, I create the recipe. They inspire them. Yeah. They've just been doing it as a family tradition. Yeah, because I'm like, well, how much chicken stock or how this? And they'll just be like, well, the pot that I always use. Yeah. You know, sort of a thing. So I feel like it's always, it always starts off that way. Do you want to keep the poblano whole or how do you want to? Yeah, you know, I always kind of like to keep them whole and just blister them straight onto the grill. So we have our pepitas. We're going to get a nice toast. Nice. Growing up, was there a Mexican chef that you admire? No, I wouldn't say that there is a Mexican chef that I admire. You know, I think the thing about Mexican food, you know, really comes from the women. You know, it comes from the women. You know, in Mexico, it's still about 90, 95%, you know, the women making food. Yeah, sure. In the family, for the family. You know, my mother also watches my kids. We'll babysit and she cooks as well. And my daughter came to me and she's like, hey, mama makes that too. Like, so it was a really, it almost made me cry because it's like here, it's right there, you know, like three generations right there. And so, like, that's why I like having them help me in the kitchen because they're going to have that same feeling and they're going to maybe one day make certain dishes as well that we make. So here we have all of our vegetables, our tomatillos, our red onions, our poblanos. That's great. Smell that. Wow. Mmm, yes. It's good. So we're going to add that to our witchcraft. That smells really, really good. Perfect. Diana's work is so important because she's really helped us reimagine what Mexican food can be. Why do we have to always think about Mexican food? She's not looking at the labor it took, the ingredients that are being used. Every sauce really in Mexican food is almost like a brew where you keep on adding to the pot. And the sauce in Mexican food, it's not a side dish, it's a big character. It is a dish. It is a dish, right? Wow. Yes. That's really, really cool. And I don't think people really understand how much, everything's been roasted, everything has been grilled just to get that flavor. Yes. It's super complex. So a lot of times people are like, oh, it's something easy I could do at home. I'm like... For me, food and politics and policies are very linked. It's a value proposition about who we value as trade partners. I've got chicken stock right here. When you look at Chinese food, it has to be cheap, but Japanese food can be expensive. When we think about Mexican food, it has to be cheap, but Spanish food can be expensive. Ooh, I'm so excited. We've done this for generations, and that's why it's very difficult then to just say, my food should be at this level. So what we want to do, basically, is just let them kind of steep together. You're concentrating, you're simmering. How much do you want me to use? All of it. All of it? Nice. There's never, there could never be too much mole. I second that. I mean, these flavors are already incredible. Right, I agree. Like, I feel like, you know, if I was the one that first invented mole verde, I'd be like, you know you could stop right here, but no, they wanted to take it to that next level. But you can't really rush this. This takes time, you know? And if you want for something really, really good with depth in flavor, not just heat and a little bit of sour sauce, this, the depth in here, is amazing. This is really the last step. We're going to let that simmer. Nice. You know, when we talk about complexity and thoughtfulness, you really have to dedicate the time to make it. And Mitokaya, that's really what I want to share. Well, congrats. One year anniversary, you're doing it. That's a big deal, right? It is a very big deal, thank you. I made it! You did, absolutely. To make such an authentic place like Mitokaya, you really need access to the most incredible ingredients that you can find in Mexico, of course, and in Chicago, Diana's found that. This is the Cremeria Lordeña No. 1. We basically sell products originally from Mexico. Cremeria came from dairy products, but our customers had asked, I mean, to bring, I mean, more products from Mexico, and we have added the dried chiles, 20 varieties of moles, and obviously all the dairy cheeses, creams, and chorizos, sausages, and a lot of varieties of beans. We have real Mexican ingredients. People can find here real Mexican heritage. Knowing how, I mean, parents and grandparents find nostalgia in all the ingredients that they can find here, that could transfer them to the original regions in Mexico. At the beginning, I mean, the person who were shopping were first-generation Mexicans, but now we have discovered that young Mexican-Americans shop here, and we have enjoyed being part of this little story here in Chicago. The fact that the Mexican-American community has been there for over 100 years and stayed intact really shows how successful the older generation have been in nurturing the next generation of Mexican-Americans in Chicago to hold on to its history, its culture, and food. We are in Carnitas Uruapan in the Pilsen neighborhood. I started with my father to teach me how to prepare carnitas because I didn't like going to school. From the age of 8 or 10, he started teaching me. And from there, well, I followed him, I followed him, until I continued making carnitas all my life. My son is following the same tradition that I learned from my parents. No. Carnitas is like reaching pork heaven. First of all, they are simmered in fat, right? In French, you would call it confit. They're simmered for hours. When done right, it's both juicy, crispy, crunchy, all at the same time. Your carnitas have arrived. Looking good. Yes, ma'am. Yes, exactly. Tenemos carnitas, shoulder, costilla, cuero, y buche. You hungry? Let's eat. So get a little bit of the skin, cueritos. A little bit of the shoulder in there. Yeah. But I love the jelly part. That's full of what gives the texture. That fattiness, that's a lot of flavor. A little bit of the ribs. I don't think you can eat better than this. Honestly. You're digging right in. How can you eat? I like this salsa with it. This salsa has a lot of jalapeños with the vinegar in it. So some of that, the acidity of the salsa cuts right through some of the fattiness of the pork. It's just juicy. It's so beautiful. The way the meat is prepared, not a ton of sauce. It's the meat. All the labor in the meat is there. I love it. It's fantastic. I have to ask. We eat authentic Mexican food today because of people like your father. So when he hears that, in this climate, on national TV, that Mexican immigrants are bad, it must feel so bad for him. Now, at times, we're not portrayed that way. The focus is shifting and looking at us in a different lens. But, you know, we're here. Contributing, amazing. Contributing, yeah. It's special for your business owners. Like, that energy that you put out is exactly what comes right back. There's a tendency to generalize and stigmatize a whole group of people. These people are just one thing. When we know it's layered and complex, these broad strokes makes the conversation we need to have about poverty, crime, and violence much harder. In a city like Chicago, we have to have a conversation about gang violence and gun violence. And to learn more about that, I want to talk to somebody that grew up in this environment. So I'm about to meet Mr. Rapper, Tokio. So how long have you guys been doing music? How long? How did you come up with it? How did you start? My abuelo, on my mother's side, he was a famous musician in Mexico, so he used to, like, teach people music. And so I have music in my blood. Tokio is one of the members of Say Money, a hip-hop collective that also includes Vic Mensa and Chance the Rapper. So let us know a little bit about your background, because you both have Mexican and Japanese. Is that right? My mom spoke Spanish, but my father spoke English because he grew up in Chicago. So my dad's a Japanese dude from Chicago. You're so lucky. You have the best food culture. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's lit. We be having sushi and tamales at our Christmas. That's crazy. Yeah. If we go back a little bit, everyone knows Chi now from movies, from the TV show, from the music. There's always been gangster from way, way ago. It's the gang culture, yeah. As young guys coming up, how did you guys stay away from that? Was music a big part of that? Yeah, definitely. Chicago's a city of gangsters. You can't beat them, then you join them. If I didn't have that, I could have went the wrong way. The music in many ways gave you the path, and it's interesting. I grew up in Sweden, sports always saved me. There's always something that as a kid you can hold on to that makes you see the light. Nowadays it's just neighborhoods and groups of people, but you could be walking down the street and have your life threatened. It could be any situation. You could have on the wrong color, the wrong hat, anything, and sometimes they're not even trying to hear you. I feel like every person who lives here experiences it. It's either you join them, or you gotta figure it out. Or you're getting robbed and stained. I just want to ask you guys, as big as you guys made it, you still would pick Chicago as your home. You wouldn't leave, right? But do you think a word like Chiraq, for example, does it bother you, or is it offensive to you guys that are from here, or do you actually like that that might be what it is? That's a negative connotation. But the publications love using the word, though. And that came from the facts of there being more killings in Chicago at the time than there was in Iraq. That's a very sad thing. With that, you take that motivation to understand all that mess that's going on, you bring that to the studio, try to clear your head, and through that you just gotta find that energy to pull through. Because the music comes out of that. I think everything, I think everything comes out of it because everybody's, you know, they live in, like, they just know that it's nothing's promised. It's not promised. For kids growing up with negative influences, it's really important to find a pathway out. For me, it was soccer and cooking. For Tokyo, it was rap. And for a group of kids in Little Village, it's boxing. In the basement of this church, Gabriel has a boxing club. It's really an incredible after-school program, a place to learn about life skills, about respect, about self-defense, working together as a team. What's up, man? How are you? Good to see you, man. You have all kinds of youth in here. All kind of youth, all ages, from 8 all the way up to 17, 18. That's awesome. I mean, we're in the South Side. It's pretty well known now. There's all kinds of activities, whether it's gangs, whether it's other stuff. How do you keep them off from right and wrong? You know what I mean? You're not with them 24-7. I'm not with them 24-7, but the parents are helping me. With myself and the parents' help, we can make a big difference. That's awesome, man. So you want to suit up? Yeah, let's suit up, man. All right, let's go. Let me get you some gloves. All right, block. One, two. How often have you heard a shooting here in your neighborhood? There's about a good two shootings every two weeks, every week. So two shootings a week, that's about 100 shootings in a year. Right. You know, that must... Wow. That's unbelievable. It's a lot. The village is a great place. It's just the violence and the gangs. Yeah. I try to stay away from that. I try to get a ride to the gym, ride home. I try not to walk a lot. Wow. And I just have to look out for my surroundings a lot. I got friends who gang bang, and I don't follow the footsteps, so I go my own path. You guys are brave, you know, because it's harder to be different. It's harder to step out and go your own path. It's easier just to follow. It takes a lot of heart, a lot of corazón to do what you guys do. I want to see you guys in 2020 Olympics. That's the goal. That's the goal. Why not? Dream big. That's what we're fighting for. I wish you all the best, and I'm so proud of you, man. Thank you. Every kid needs role models, somebody to look up to. There is a chef in Chicago that helps young cooks to really aspire to think on a higher level and to cook with really high techniques to be excellent. My name is Carlos Gaitan. I do modern Mexican with French techniques. There is a new group of chefs that we want to try to showcase food that you find now in Mexico. This is our Mexican cuisine. We do not know what's margaritas and guacamole, basically, because we have such an amazing culture and amazing dishes that people don't realize that exist. Those flavors, you know, that when I grew up, when I was a kid and bring it over to Chicago, you decide to step out of the box and do something different, you're going to find yourself that you did something great. It smells so good. How are you? Carlos Gaitan is amazing. He was the first Mexican-American chef to get a Michelin star. So Carlos is very important in what a next generation Mexican chef can be, can taste like. That smells so good in here. It's good, right? Mole for us is very traditional, ceremonial. So this is called Mole Ceremonial Michoacano. Okay. Mole Ceremonial Michoacano. How about the tamales? She's going to be making her tamales, and I'm going to make my own tamales. You know how lucky I am? This is like a tamale tasting. I'm the lucky one today, you know? I'm in the kitchen with two very skillful chefs teaching me two different takes on tamales. We are making Corundas. Corundas. So it's a traditional tamale from Michoacan. Simba Perez is a traditional pre-Spanish chef, which means that the recipes are thousands and thousands of years old. Tamales can be traced back to 7000 BC, the Mayan and the Aztec civilization. So we have the masa here? We have the masa, and in the masa we have the corn. Corn? You put a little bit of lard. Nice. And queso cotija. So you mix everything? Yeah. What do we got here? What do you call this? It's metate. Metate, okay. Metate is like the traditional blender in Mexico, or licuadora. Wow. These recipes are actually from the native Mexicans, like pre-Spanish, and that's why they're so special. Simba is really preserving, almost like a historian, a Mexican culture that we may not know enough about. So instead of using something really dense as the masa, because of the corn is what happens, so we're going to do the seafood mousse. It's going to be more lighter when you cook it. It's going to be very fluffy. So Carlos is going to show me how to make his version of tamales. Equally difficult to make, equally sophisticated, but just in a very different method and technique. Go for it. When everything gets together in one ball on the side, that's when we start getting the heavy cream. A little bit of heavy cream. So that's where your French is. Butter, cream. I love it. This is like, reminds me of France, you know? And the sauce, because I know at Simba she used mole, so we're going to go more on the French side. So Carlos is really mixing Mexican traditional food with classic French techniques and ingredients. Beautiful. It's going to be great. So what were some of the French restaurants that you worked in when you came as a young chef student and doing...? You know, I worked at the Union League Club. Yeah? And then from there I was in charge one time to do a dinner for the French Embassy, and then they got nervous when they see this Mexican cooking French cuisine. They didn't believe it. And to, you know, finish everything, and then they offered me a job at a French restaurant. That's great, right? Yeah. When I started cooking in America too, very often they asked, who's the chef? And I was like, I am. And they just wouldn't use to see a young black chef. You know, you have to believe it. We worked really hard. Yes. Mexican cooks have been the backbone of so many great kitchens. It's very similar to how African Americans came up. Very often they were the cooks, but they were silent and reached the ceiling. But now what Carlos represents is this new Yvonne that's saying, yes, we've been the cooks and we've been the backbone, but now we are the chefs. We've taken over. This is our food. This is how I cook. This is a new way of telling a story, and we need more examples like that. Sometimes you sacrifice great flavors because it's not traditional. Yeah. You know, and I don't want to do that. It gives me the opportunity to use different ingredients that are not Mexican, different techniques. Yeah. And present my food a different way. All right, chefs. Wow, this is beautiful. A little sauce. This is a stunning dish. Nice and creamy. Also, we have these beautiful tamales here. Yes. Two completely different versions of cooking. They both honor your home country. And how do we serve them? Like this. So you can pass me the mole, chef. Sure. On the middle. That looks delicious. Yeah. It's so good. Yeah. Like canard de mole. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I love mole. Sorry, chef. Oh, go, go, go, go, go. Look at that. I'm actually going to start with Carlos' fish because it's lighter. Lighter, yeah. You want to go with something. Yeah, the flavors. It looks delicious, Carlos. It looks like art in a plate. Mm-hmm. But it's so light. So sophisticated. Mm. It's a very complex dish with layers. The crab, the citrus, the tomato. I love this. It's like something that was done 3,000 years ago can have a modern interpretation. I love that. Absolutely. Very sophisticated. Balance in everything. Flavors, presentation. It's delicious. When I eat this tamale with the mole, it reminds me a lot of Africa because the chilies are the same and the layers of the sauce is the same as we have in Ethiopia. But the tamale itself is very, very different. Eating with the cheese inside, it adds this sour note that I love. But the mole, for me, is the star. So it's smoky. It's not actually very spicy. Not super spicy. But it's rich and flavorful. This is a plate with a lot of history. It tells me a story behind, you know, when I was a kid eating these flavors. Mm. I think you did a really great job. Mm-hmm. You know, Carlos is teaching not only a new generation, but he's also inspiring new generation Mexican chefs to be modern, to try. But without the history, you can't move forward. Yeah. So you both are ambassadors of the culture and just using it in different means, right? The passion I bring to this country is the food. I've been the benefactor of working with incredible Mexican people for 20 years. So to hear that people are not welcome anymore and it's just nonsense to me. I'm a big believer. Faith is very important in our country. God has been doing a lot of things through my life. And then one of the things that I'm very sure that he's given me is a talent. Mm. My talent is to make people happy through the things that I do. Now when I'm cooking, when I go represent my cuisine, in other countries, I don't represent just one country. No. It's two countries. You know, whatever I do, they don't mention the Mexican chef from Huitzuco Guerrero. They say the Mexican chef, Carlos Gaitan, from Chicago. Chicago, yeah, yeah. And I do very happy, you know, because I think both countries start to recognize the things that they're doing for us and to help us to be where we are. Mm. Zimba and Carlos are great examples of people that are willing to contribute but also giving back to America with their skills and their work ethic twofold. But right now, there's a lot of people that their future is very much in the unknown. When programs like DACA is being challenged or there's not been a replacement to it, over 800,000 children and adults don't know what the next step's gonna be. DACA, which means Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival, provides a level of amnesty for people who came to this country as children. And this is the only home that they know as home. To have all that challenged or by the risk of being taken away, it's detrimental. We're playing with people's lives. We're playing with families' lives. This is sort of like your water hole. On my day off, I'm always here. I usually call my mom up, and I'm like, hey, do you want to go hang out, grab a drink, listen to some really good music? You seem to be very close, mom and son. It's a very special relationship. Yeah, the courage was now, yeah. How did you come up in the beverage industry? Was it your mom that got you there, or how did you get there? I started in high school as a barista in a coffee shop and then moved across the street to a local bar that was opening up, and I moved my way up from a bar back to a bar manager to a bartender, and now I meet Tokaya as a beverage director. That's wonderful. So we have Siembra Valles. It's a blanco tequila, so you can definitely smell agave and the citrus that comes out of it. It's a lot of minerality in it as well. Really, really nice and sweet. This is by far my favorite mezcal, El Gregorio Espadín. It's been aged underground in a glass bottle for 10 years. Oh, wow, so this is a Mexican version of kimchi. I love it, I love it. And for mezcal, you've got to be really open to the idea that what you're having in your glass right now, you will never, ever have again. As you make mezcal, every little small decision that the maestro mezcalero makes will affect that flavor profile. This is beautiful, by the way. It has that bitter note, and then the warmth with the smokiness is there, but it's very balanced. Mezcal or tequila, tequila or mezcal, they're both made from agave. Tequila, just like champagne, can only be done in one region with blue agave from Jalisco. Mezcal can be done with several types of agave anywhere in Mexico. The smokiness that mezcal gets is due to the process. Take the agave and you roast it in a pit. That's where the mezcal gets its smoky and its earthiness from. That's why it tastes a little bit different than the tequila. You know, you want to savor those flavors and you want to, you know, smell the aromas. We have a lot of, like, cool things that we can have in between, like citrus and oranges and a little jicama. Just to cleanse the palate? Yeah, I mean, my favorite thing is just munching on chapulines. Okay, let's do that. Yeah, I like it. It's my favorite. Not vegan, but delicious. Quite delicious. Salud. Ulises, you're a dreamer. You work very, very hard. But the paper might not work out. I mean, we're praying and hoping for it, but... Yeah, it's a very high toss-up. Do you have a plan B? Make mezcal in Oaxaca? Not a bad plan B. It's not a bad plan B, but America is home soil. When did you come to America? Okay, so 1994. In December. Yeah. And the train, the bus. From Mexico City to Chicago? One week. No! And the... I mean, it's a tricky conversation because, better lack of words, we jumped the border. And you were already born? Yeah, I was 4 years old. 4 years old. Yeah. I mean, I vividly remember we, like, caught on a tree, jumped a fence, and then... Yeah, ran across a neighborhood to, like, hide under a house as, you know, immigration cars were running around. Weren't you scared? You had to be quiet as a child. Oh, very quiet, yeah. But the adrenaline kicked in when we had to run across a bridge to a nearby car that was gonna drive us from Nogales to Arizona, or, like, a nearby town in Arizona to Phoenix. I mean, your story, for me, it's so powerful because a lot of people came to this country, to Spain, and you've been in now 24, 25 years, and you're, at this point, you're an American kid. Like, this is your home. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I went to school here, graduated here. You paid taxes here. Worked here, I paid taxes here. Yeah, for sure. Everything here is here. You know, so, um, the day that I did get my DACA approval, I just kind of, like, fell to the floor, and I'm like, I can do so much more now. No more hiding. You were actually... No. You can actually contribute. Yes, I can drive now. I can own a car. Wow. Mom, with all the work, everything you did, was it worth it? Yes. Oh, my God. I don't know how to say it. Say it in Spanish. Yeah. Take your time. Was everything worth it? Of course. It was all worth it. Like all immigrants, we have highs, we have lows. I didn't think I'd come to this country. I didn't think I'd step foot on this land. Blessed land, because it has given me a lot. And it has given him a lot of things that make me happy. I'm happy that God has given me a son as big as he is. I don't know if I can express all the love I have for him. And what he is to me is... He's my world. That idea of a mother and son crossing a border, hopefully it's going to be better on the other side, but not knowing what's going to happen. It's something that I deeply understand. When I was a young child in Ethiopia, my sister, myself, and my mother, we all had tuberculosis. But my mother walked us to a hospital so we could get help. You know, she sacrificed. She ultimately passed away. But I wouldn't be here if my mom wouldn't have done that sacrifice. Ulysses wouldn't be here, contributing, working. And there are many Olivias and Ulysses today. And they deserve a chance. I identify very much with my culture, and I am Mexican to the fullest. I am 100%. It runs in my blood. But America is where I'm at. It's where I'm supposed to be. It's what I'm supposed to do. Like this place that we're at, or the place that I work at, Mitokaya, we have so much more to offer, and we have so much to teach to people. There's so much more room to grow. As a parent and as an immigrant, for me, they're linked as one. They both inspire me to work harder, do more, help others be a stronger person in the community, contribute, to be more creative. And that's exactly what Ulysses is doing. And now, Ulysses and I are gonna head over to Mitokaya to celebrate the one-year anniversary. This is the calabacita con queso caribe, oven-dried tomatoes that have enchilado in them, and kale. Thank you, Chef. Diana, she's celebrating with her crew and her family. But this is a very typical dish my mom used to make. Those are tortitas de carne. Tortitas de carne, nice. Yeah, that's a plank steak. Good. Now I know where Diana got it all from, right? Well, thank you. Being part of celebrating is really, really fun. One year is a big milestone, and I know that this is just one of many successful years that Mitokaya's gonna have. The sense of pride that Diana shares with the staff that they have achieved to create this magical place. So, Chef, this looks amazing. What do we got? So, we have ensalada de nopales, so raw cactus that's been brined and limed with raw cauliflower, onions, a little cold mole amarillo, and chicharrón de pollo, chicken skins. And what is this? These guys are, like, amazing. Yeah, aren't they awesome? These are called enfricoladas, so we take tortillas, we pan-fry them, we fold them into these nice triangles with a local black bean sauce, some chorizo, a little bit of queso fresco, some really kind of old-school guacamole. What's the black stuff on top? The ash. The ash? It's the chile seed ash. It just adds this really kind of cool nuttiness, sweetness, a little pre-Hispanic technique. You know, a lot of people think that it's modern, but it's not a modern touch. It's a little bit of the past. And for the main, we have a beautiful heritage roasted chicken with our mole verde that we've been slaying away in the kitchen, and with some arroz casero, some homestyle Mexican rice. Wow. First of all, what a great day to be here. Your one-year anniversary, and you're doing it with your staff. Having a beautiful staff, I mean, this is the best staff I've ever had. What, a beautiful staff? Ride or die? Ride or die! I'm sorry, did we startle you? Everybody kind of has a story here, and we ended up just really bonding with the food, really, you know? Like, when we start talking about, oh, mole verde, nopales, or calabacitas, or fideos, or different people would be like, oh, my mom would make that. You see their eyes light up, and then they want to do it right. They want to do it just. And they also bring their own experience to it as well. And it just so happened to be, like, all of a sudden, you know, Yuli walks in the door. I mean, you've met Yuli. He's so learned on all things agave now. He's obsessed. I mean, let's drink. Salud. Buen provecho. Salud. What do we got here? Salud. This is an excellent tequila. It's been aged for 48 months. You smell it. You smell all the caramel and vanilla notes. So it's been left in a cast barrel, American white oak. It's such a beautiful thing. You know what? Let the rich people have the cognac, and let's just keep it for us, because this is too dry for me. Don't tell anyone. How do you like everything? The food is amazing. I can't... All the flavors, huh? I can't even do it justice in words. It's so flavorful. Good. I'm glad you like it. Beautiful. I mean, Tiana is... And she's a force. She is fierce and a force. And it's like discovering a young band. It's like... Imagine in the mid-'80s and Guns N' Roses are playing. That's Mitokaya right now. You know, you're not gonna be there and be like, I don't remember if I ate there. You're not gonna say, did I ever meet Tiana? You're gonna remember if you ate her food and if you met her. You know, I really do believe that Mexican food is really underestimated and underrated. You know, from... But I feel like it's also something that we have to very much hold dear to us. And we have a certain responsibility, not just if Mexican, if it's your culture, if you choose to cook this food because you love it, to do it justice. I don't think any country has given us so much food, amazing food, as our neighboring country, Mexico. The techniques and the history that goes into it, from carnitas. It's so beautiful. To tacos. This is the perfect bite. God, it's good. To moles. Yeah. Like a lot of the moles. Yeah. It's two different ways of thinking about breads and sauces. It's super complex. It's not easy. You really have to dedicate the time to make it. So now, when we finally start to fully understand it, let's appreciate it. And also let's appreciate the incredible stories and individuals. Good color, eh? Everybody like tacos. You cook Mexican great tacos now. Muchas gracias. Mexican-Americans have strengthened and shaped and innovated for years. And their love for America is shown in their entrepreneurship, in their jobs that they're doing. Salud. With a lot of hope, dignity, and desire, and just contributing. What are we doing? Salsa, huaracha, guay. I want the Mexican version. And it's very different. Show me. Yeah, just do it. Mi base. Pump, pump. No, no pump, pump. I love it. Look, this one. Boom. No. No, porque de caché es this one here. That's very different. Listen, we need to make one more tequila. Okay, good. Before we start dancing. I agree.