A chef’s gripping quest to reconcile his childhood experiences as a migrant farmworker with the rarefied world of fine dining.

Born in rural Mexico, Eduardo “Lalo” García and his family left for the United States
when he was a child, where they spent years laboring as migrant farmworkers, picking fruits and vegetables from Florida to Michigan. As a teenager, Lalo began to work in Atlanta's restaurant kitchens, including for famed Chef Eric Ripert. But that fledgling career would be sidetracked when he was convicted of a robbery and incarcerated, before being deported to Mexico.

When Lalo finally landed in Mexico City and began working for Chef Enrique Olvera of Pujol, he joined a growing movement among Mexican chefs who were questioning the prejudices that had historically privileged European cuisine in Mexico's elite spaces. With his wife, restaurant manager Gabriela López-Cruz, Lalo embarked on opening his own restaurant, the acclaimed restaurant, Máximo Bistrot, where he began to craft transcendent food that narrated his memories and hopes, simultaneously bringing Mexico's small growers and producers to the forefront by showcasing sustainable ingredients.

Journalist Laura Tillman spent five years immersively reporting Lalo’s story. Whatemerges is a moving portrait of Lalo's struggle to find authenticity in the fraught fine dining industry, and of the evolution of a culinary artform. Deeply researched and intimately told, The Migrant Chef offers readers an unforgettable window into the immigrant experience, Mexico’s gastronomic heritage and the making of a chef.