Pati

Huevos a la Mexicana; shredded flank steak with potatoes in green salsa; Mexican rice with prawns; orange vanilla flan. Pati travels to Mexico City to reconnect with her father and help him cook one of her favorite childhood meals: Huevos a la Mexicana. Back in her own kitchen, she’ll use that visit as inspiration to cook a few dishes that she remembers fondly from childhood, and then pass on the tradition by cooking dessert with her youngest son Juju.

Tex-Mex chili; poblano, bacon and cheddar skillet cornbread; Mexican chocolate doughnuts. Inspired by her years living in Texas, Pati creates a series of dishes that combine her passion for Mexican cuisine and her favorite foods of America’s Lone Star State. Her oldest son Alan, who was born in Texas and is fully Tex-Mex, joins her in the kitchen.

Alphabet soup; molletes, grilled cheese and bean hero sandwiches; pico de gallo salsa; dulce de leche cheesecake. This episode is all about Pati’s boys — it’s time for a little mother/son bonding time. First, Pati takes Alan, Sami, and Juju to their favorite place to have fun, and then for lunch, the boys will pick their absolute favorite dishes that their mom makes. The only hitch? They have to give mom a hand as she prepares each dish.

Pati is in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, a pretty vacation town known for cobblestone streets, colonial architecture, art galleries and delicious eats. This week, Alan, Sami and Juju have a break from school, so she brought them along! The Jinich family has just arrived in San Miguel, and Pati wants to kick off the week with a delicious breakfast. But first, she’ll introduce us to San Miguel.

Pati is vactioning in San Miguel de Allende, which has lots of opportunities for rest & relaxation, but today Pati is here for one thing - FOOD! From street food to fine dining, San Miguel has always been one of Mexico's top culinary destinations! Pati is going to show us the highlights of the food scene, then she'll head back to the kitchen to cook up recipes that reflect the region.

There are so many delicious ways to enjoy tacos, and Pati is constantly trying to impress her boys with new twists on traditional taco recipes. Her sons love tacos so much that the Jinich's have a family tradition every couple of weeks: Taco Night! While the family is on vacation in San Miguel, Pati has decided to bring their Taco Night tradition to Mexico.

Pati heads to the coastal city of Champotón, Mexico, and gets a warm welcome from her friend Chachi. They taste their way through the local market and gather groceries for a family dinner at Hacienda Niop, where Pati learns the secrets behind the area’s most prized dishes including a giant tamal cooked underground. Back in her home kitchen, Pati makes her own simpler versions of those dishes.

Pati gets an insiders look at Mérida, the capital of the Yucatán, with help from local chefs Pedro Evia and David Cetina. She explores the forefronts of molecular gastronomy, botanas or “bar snacks” at a cantina, family classics at the market, and even foreign influences like Kibi. One thing is for sure, Mérida is a food-lovers’ city.

Pati’s good friend chef Pedro Evia, of K’u’uk restaurant in Mérida, takes her on one of his favorite day trips – a visit to the coastal town of Celestún. After a meal featuring the morning’s catch and seeing the main attraction (the flamingos), the day culminates in a cookout right on the beach. Back in her kitchen, Pati channels the charming fishing village with a simple, yet impressive meal.

Pati shows how to get the most out of one day in the city of Oaxaca. In 24 hours, she takes in the top sights, meets up with a local guide, goes to the market for lunch, and gives viewers a taste of the vibrant restaurant scene in one of the top culinary destinations in all of Mexico. In her kitchen, she recreates some of the things she had at the market and gives them some new uses.

Pati takes us on a deep dive into the history of Oaxaca cuisine from pre-Hispanic origins, to the introduction of Spanish techniques, and finally modern day movements. She starts by tasting ancestral recipes at the local market. Then, she meets up with a friend and historian who takes her to a restaurant, where they eat traditional Oaxaca recipes with a modern twist.

Pati travels to the small town of Teotitlan de Valle to meet with one of the best cooks in Oaxaca, Abigail Mendoza. Abigail is opening her home to show Pati her dedication to preserving the pre-Hispanic techniques and recipes of her Zapotec ancestors. Back in Pati’s kitchen, her experience with Abigail inspires recipes that feature few ingredients used in rustic Oaxacan ways.

One of the most up and coming food destinations in all of Mexico, Tijuana is full of young, fresh talent across the culinary scene. Some of the best chefs in the world are coming from all over and setting up shop to take part in Baja’s most exciting culinary movement. Pati spends the day meeting up with the hottest new chefs in town.

Life on the border is a melting pot of cultures and cuisines that creates a unique culinary scene. As a Mexican immigrant in America, Pati spent her life combining cuisines. Influences from San Diego, southern Mexico, and all over the world come together as Pati dives deep to get the real story of what life and food are like on the border.

The port town of Ensenada is a seafood mecca. Fresh fish is everywhere you look, and this hub for seafood exportation is also the gateway to Mexican wine country. Pati eats her way through this coastal gem from their famous fish tacos to La Guerrenese, considered the best street food on the planet, to the oldest bar in Baja and originator of the margarita, Hussongs.

Pati visits Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa. Founded in 1531, Culiacán is the center of trade for produce, meat, and fish. Locals pride themselves on the produce cultivated from the land and nearby sea. Celebrated chef and culinary ambassador Miguel Taniyama takes Pati to the best markets, street food stands, and restaurants. In her kitchen, Pati creates recipes inspired by the experience.

Altata is a small coastal town with stretches of beautiful beaches. Pati meets locals and chefs as the town embarks on a journey to reinvent itself from sleepy fishing village to tourist destination. She takes a boat ride to sample fresh oysters right from the water and visits restaurants serving fresh seafood. At home, Pati prepares a seafood feast based on the bountiful waters of the Altata Bay.

Pati welcomes dear friend and fellow public television chef and host Vivian Howard to her kitchen. In this south of the border meets southern food experience, Pati and Vivian will cook a couple of their classic recipes for each other, looking for connections in cultures and food.

In Tucson, Pati learns the basics of artisan bread-making from one of America’s best bakers, Don Guerra of Barrio Bakery. This experience sets her on a mission to cross into Sonora, Mexico, to see where the Sonoran wheat Don uses for his breads originates. Pati takes what she learned back to her kitchen to create a menu of tasty recipes using wheat flour.

Pati spends a day in Sonora’s capital, Hermosillo, visiting some of the city’s best culinary destinations. From gigantic burritos at Doña Guille, to a meat lover’s feast with the owner of the popular restaurant Mochomos, mingling with the young crowd at La Ruina brew park, and a treat no trip would be complete without, Sonoran hot dogs.

Pati experiences two important Sonoran culinary traditions. First, on the coast in Bahía Kino, local fishermen receive “the blessing” from a woman from the Seri tribe before heading out on the water to catch giant sea scallops. Then, in the mountain town of Matape, Nere, one of Sonora’s few female butchers, shares with Pati a tradition called “the benefit.”

Pati explores the culinary highlights of Jalisco’s capital city, Guadalajara. She starts at a legendary street cart for a taste of the city’s most iconic sandwich, tortas ahogadas. Then, she meets up with one of the city’s best chefs, Fabian Delgado, to see how he’s setting new expectations for the market food experience. In her kitchen, Pati makes bolillos and a torta (called lonche in Jalisco) filled with a local staple, tatemado de puerco.

Guadalajara is the cultural epicenter of Jalisco, drawing some of the most creative artists, musicians and chefs from all over Mexico. In this episode, Pati explores some unique spots where food and art truly connect. At Ceramica Suro, she gets a tour of the ceramics factory that supplies dishware and textiles to some of the finest restaurants in Mexico and the US. Then she visits two chefs, Poncho Cadena and Fernanda Covarrubias, who both create artistic, colorful dishes that are almost too beautiful to eat. In her kitchen, Pati makes an almond tres leches cake and another dish inspired by her experiences.

Pati stops at a couple of Guadalajara’s most beloved restaurants for two of the region’s classic recipes. At Super Menuderia Cano, Pati learns the secrets to their menudo recipe that’s so good people line up down the block waiting to get in. Then, she visits Birriera Chololo, where locals say the birria is second to none. Back in her kitchen, Pati keeps the classics theme going by perfecting her own recipes for a few Jalisco favorites: menudo, tepache and jericalla.

Retired mechanic Gualberto Elizondo, “Weber,” surprised his grown kids when suddenly his grilling hobby turned him into a local celebrity and internet sensation. He drives Pati through the mountains of La Huasteca in his old car, then to his famous back patio where he and his family treat us to cabrito en salsa and short ribs. But local chef Chuy Villareal of Cara De Vaca wants the world to know that the north of Mexico isn’t just carne asada and he’s putting a Mediterranean twist on his traditional dishes.

Don’t complain, don’t ask for the bathroom, and definitely don’t ask for salt. On the river Ramos, two sisters – who didn’t ask for your opinion – have taken a shack that serves one dish, traditional cortadillo stew, and made it into a must-visit restaurant. Just watch out for their parrot, he bites. And about 10 minutes down the road in the town of Allende is another restaurant that uses traditional stews in their famous empalmes, or stacked tacos.

Much like the deep and bitter divide of Salsa Roja vs Salsa Verde, the state of Nuevo León is divided between two pro soccer teams: Los Tigres and Los Rayados. Pati tries the food at each stadium with stars from each team to be the judge on who wins in the battle of tortas and tacos.

Pati is in the magic town of Maní to learn about something sacred to the Mayans – bees and honey. A cooperative of women who protect the endangered Melipona, a stingless bee native to Yucatán, invites her to join in a Mayan energy cleansing ritual involving buñuelos made with Melipona honey. Then she visits a family living by the traditional “Solar Maya,” meaning they grow everything they eat.

In Tekit, or “The Capital of the Guayabera,” Pati encounters a tale of sons going against their father’s wishes to follow their own path. Pati meets Eliodoro Xicum, a farmer’s son who went against his father to build a family business making the iconic Guayabera shirts. Then she meets his son, Elio, who chose to become a chef and created a dish that resembles a Guayabera in honor of his father.

Pati explores the vibrant streets of Yucatán’s capital, Mérida, in search of its flavors. She tries “the best tacos in Mérida” at Wayan’e. The aroma of freshly made cookies lures her to Dondé Fabric, where their globitos and bizcochitos are an important part of Mérida’s mornings. She has sorbet at a shop run by the same family for generations and tastes a unique Yucatecan liqueur at Casa D’Aristi.

In Ciudad Juárez, Pati joins in with a group of Pachuco dancers, who are passionately preserving this distinctive Prohibition-era culture’s traditions. Together they head to the iconic Kentucky Bar, rumored to be the birthplace of the margarita. Later, she savors an icon of Juárez’s food scene, the burrito, at Burritos El Compa where the Olivares are keeping their family legacy alive.

For the indigenous Rarámuri people, long-distance running through Chihuahua’s majestic Copper Canyon is a way of life. Pati meets the Moreno brothers, who are famous for winning ultramarathons. In Huetosachi, community leader María Monarca teaches Pati about the art of cooking with corn in Rarámuri cuisine, from nixtamalization to a traditional dish known as “chacales.”

In Chihuahua’s capital, Chihuahua City, Pati meets the first member of the Rarámuri people to become a world-famous pianist, Romeyno Gutiérrez, who teaches her the basics of Rarámuri music before taking her to his favorite barbacoa spot. Pati’s also invited into the home of Chef Ana Rosa Beltrán del Río to cook a few ancient Chihuahuan recipes and learn the art of drying chiles.

Pati returns to her hometown, Mexico City, and joins historian Erika Zúñiga to trace its history from Templo Mayor to Bellas Artes, with a stop for churros at the legendary El Moro. Later, she meets journalist Enrique Acevedo at Central de Abastos, the world’s busiest market, where they share delicious tacos de lengua and reflect on the city’s vibrant present and future.

Pati steps into Mexico City’s creative scene at El Volador, where Francisco Enríquez shows how his team builds the towering art behind Day of the Dead parades and festivals. Over alambre, they reflect on the power of imagination. Later, Pati visits papel picado artist Yuriria Alfaro and her team to learn about the history of punctured paper and share fish tamales that honor its enduring spirit.

Pati visits Xochimilco’s canals to learn about the ancient chinampas and their modern-day preservation. In a traditional smoke kitchen, Chef Raúl Jimenez prepares pipián verde and discusses conservation. She later joins Francisco Salvador and Omar Espinoza, who work to protect the endangered axolotl, and ends the day at Francisco’s home, to reflect on local resilience over a meal of chile relleno.