09/16 Patsy McGaughy, Napa Valley Vintners, Chef Marcela Valladolid - Food Network, Mexican Made Easy

Patsy McGaughy - Communications Director, Napa Valley Vintners

With warm weather continuing into September, the Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) reports that the pace of the 2013 Napa Valley wine grape harvest has accelerated. The picking of white wine grapes, especially aromatic varieties, is nearly finished and the harvesting of red wine grapes including Pinot Noir, Merlot and Malbec, is in full swing.

After a spell of hot weather last week, the marine influence is again being felt in Napa Valley, providing what Pam Starr, winemaker for Crocker & Starr Wines in St. Helena, calls "luxurious hang time" for the development of balanced sugars and acids that portend the makings of another quality vintage.

The region's diverse terrain, soil types, microclimates, vineyard locations, grape varieties and wine styles, along with many other intricate climatic, geological, and geographical factors, make harvest in Napa Valley a complex, exhilarating and moment-by-moment process, which can be followed at www.napavintners.com/harvest.

The Napa Valley Vintners (NVV) is the non-profit trade association responsible for promoting and protecting the Napa Valley appellation as the premier winegrowing region. From seven founding members in 1944, today the association represents nearly 500 Napa Valley wineries and is a leader in the worldwide wine industry. To learn more about our region and its legendary American wines, visit www.napavintners.com.

 
Chef Marcela Valladolid - Food Network, Mexican Made Easy - Author

Growing up around expert and traditional cooks in Tijuana, Mexico, Marcela was raised to be passionate about food. She jumped straight into a culinary life with her first job working at her aunt’s cooking school in Baja, Mexico. She realized she too wanted to pursue this growing love for food full time and enrolled in the Los Angeles Culinary Institute. She then went to the Ritz Escoffier Cooking School in Paris to become trained as a classical French pastry chef.Marcela returned home to run a catering company and teach children about the culinary arts in Tijuana. All the while, collecting recipes and applying her knowledge and skills of her family’s cooking traditions to map out her dreams. Marcela eventually parlayed her classical training and skills to become a food editor at Bon Appétit magazine.

Marcela quickly realized that the idea of authentic Mexican cooking wasn’t as accessible as it should be. Her family’s cuisine was masked by heavy liquid cheese, overflowing burritos and decided that she was going to show the world that in fact there’s NO yellow cheese in real Mexican cooking and it can be done with major flavors and little fuss. She then landed her own cooking show - Discovery en Español’s Relatos con Sabor and went on to audition for The Apprentice: Martha Stewart which she was soon chosen for.

In August 2009, Marcela was given the chance to showcase her family recipes when she released her first cookbook titled “FRESH MEXICO: 100 Simple Recipes for True Mexican Flavor” (Clarkson Potter). She appeared on NBC’s Today, The View was featured in Latina, People, People en Espanol, Wall Street Journal and the New York Daily News around its release. The book was very well received reaching the #1 cookbook spot on Amazon more than once. With the book, Marcela became the advocate for great Mexican food that delivers in freshness and flavor without forcing home cooks to track down hard-to-find ingredients or spend hours at the stove.

Soon after her book release, she landed her dream job as host of her own Food Network show, Mexican Made Easy. The show made its debut early in 2010 and films in San Diego where Marcela currently lives. She is currently in her fourth season. She was invited to appear on NBC’s Today Show, The Talk and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon around the latest season.

Marcela released her second cookbook called Mexican Made Easy (Clarkson Potter) on September 27, 2011. The book is a companion to her TV show and serves as an entryway into authentic Mexican cuisine.  

FOOD NETWORK’S  MEXICAN MADE EASY HOST  REVEALS NEW RECIPES:

It’s not hard to see the growing popularity of Mexican food. For instance, earlier this year, the National Museum of American History sponsored an exhibit on How Mexican Food Conquered America.  Also, recent survey found that Mexican food has surpassed Italian as the #1 ethnic food in the U.S.  Of course, one super chef who can claim some credit for the growing popularity of Mexican food is Chef Marcela Valladolid, who has gained national fame creating flavorful dishes as the host of the popular Food Network Show, Mexican Made Easy.

On September 16, Chef Marcela will reveal for the first time, some amazing new recipes and launch a new line of Mexican food that could revolutionize the gourmet home cooking experience.  Your viewers and listeners can enjoy the tasty details of Chef Marcella’s experience on Food Network and find out about some amazing culinary creations that they can prepare at home.  We hope you’ll book an interview with this genius of the kitchen.

BACKGROUND: Chef Marcela is an advocate for great Mexican food that delivers freshness and flavor without forcing home cooks to track down hard-to-find ingredients — or spend hours at the stove.  She is the author of FRESH MEXICO: 100 Simple Recipes for True Mexican Flavor, and was a contestant on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, and is a former food editor for Bon Appétit magazine.  Valladolid has appeared on the Today Show and hosted her Food Network Show since 2010.