Renowned Mexican-American chef and culinary anthropologist Claudette Zepeda has been thrilling Food Network audiences for years now with her fearless creations in the kitchen, as well as her equally valiant personality. The “border kid,” who spent her childhood venturing back and forth between San Diego, California, and Tijuana, Mexico, was heavily influenced by the region’s culturally diverse communities and its variety of deliciously nuanced fare.

Claudette has become legendary from her appearances on Bobby’s Triple Threat, Tournament of Champions IV and VII, House of Knives, Wildcard Kitchen, Alex vs. America and a special episode of Selena + Chef: Home for the Holidays. When she’s not slaying her competition or delighting viewers with dishes reflective of her Mexican roots, she’s busy running Chispa Hospitality, creating inventive food concepts in different cities: from her flagship, VAGA Restaurant & Bar, in Encinitas, California; to Taqueria Zepeda inside of Nashville’s GEODIS Park; to Novecientos Grados, a collaboration with Tony Hawk at San Diego International Airport that celebrates border and skater culture.

In addition to her growing enterprises, Claudette has also made it her mission to give back through her organization, Viva La Vida, helping Mexican women break free from generational poverty by working with them to establish their own micro-businesses, creating opportunities for single mothers to import their heirloom ingredients to the United States.

Now, her long-awaited debut cookbook, Cooking the Borderlands: Spice and Smoke Between Mexico and the States (Clarkson Potter), has hit bookshelves nationwide, accompanied by a book tour with appearances in New York, Chicago, Nashville, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Costa Mesa and back home in San Diego.

Featuring luminous photography by David Alvarado and more than 100 recipes directly influenced by Claudette’s life and upbringing, the book feels like part memoir as readers take a vivid journey through her family’s origin story and the personal complexities of growing up between two nations and two vastly different cities that are both rich in flavor and heritage.

Cooking the Borderlands will not only open minds about the Mexico-United States border and perspectives on immigration, but it will allow all of us to taste the region’s robust, nuanced cuisines through a range of dishes, including Torta de Chilaquiles (Red Chilaquiles Sandwich), Tohono O’Odham Nation Tepary Bean Enfrijoladas, Langosta Estilo Puerto Nuevo (Ensenada-Style Lobster) and Cantonese-Mexican Chop Suey. There are even dishes from Claudette’s childhood, including Nancy’s Albóndigas al Chipotle (Mom’s Meatballs) and Zepeda Family Birria, that will make you feel as though you’re sitting down to dinner with Claudette herself.

Recently, chef Claudette took time from her busy schedule and family life to chat with us about her new cookbook and all things borderlands.

Why is it important to you to honor not only your family but the multicultural communities living along the borderlands?

Being Mexican is a cultural identity, not an ethnicity, and the cultures who have made a home in its post-colonization era changed the way we eat and live life, for the better, in my opinion. Our cultural identity is largely tied to food and hospitality; the mentality of “I may not have much, but I have my hands and can make something to nurture you” is an ethos we all live by. The world is constantly telling us how different we are, and that divisive mentality is doing nothing for this and future generations. I want to show the way the cultural marriages that happened on Mexico’s soil resulted in some of the most iconic dishes the world knows and loves. One cannot talk about the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity that Mexican cuisine is (UNESCO designation) without highlighting this.

The photography inside is both vivid and artful. When conceiving this book, how integral was imagery when sharing the stories and recipes of the region?

I am a visual learner and see everything through a Technicolor lens. I can hear color and sounds. My photography team of David Alvarado and his assistant, Jason Sutherland, have the same affliction and joined me on my vision. The only way to convey what is happening inside my head is to show all parts of me. I wanted to talk about the food of the border, but it was also important to show all parts of me. I am grateful that my editor, Francis Lam, saw value in that, too. As a first-gen Mexican American, I had to learn American culture through TV and movies. My father would always play movies for us as kids, and I, at a very young age, understood the power of a frame. The images in a square that can convey many different emotions, along with the understanding of color theory. Since we have yet to come up with the tech to transmit smell or flavor through pages, every frame had a different setup of light, shadow manipulation, flowers my prop stylist Jaclyn Kershek “foraged” from an LA neighborhood. It resulted in images that can easily be hung up on a wall. I don’t need to show people how to plate enchiladas or a chile relleno, so I gave us permission to find Mexican creative joy.

As a cinephile, were there any specific classic films you had in mind that influenced you and your team when shooting photography for this book?

Every director has a style, so we deployed more aesthetic overall, but there are a couple of nods. Poltergeist for the nachos, the margarita machine that the incredible Britt Keller built for us in two days [is] a nod to Asteroid City. The enchiladas were shot in a Grindhouse aesthetic or what you could get if Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino shot a cookbook.

You wrote about how cities like Tijuana and Mexicali have welcomed and embraced diversity over the past couple of centuries, and how local food culture is particularly influenced by Chinese immigrants. If someone was visiting the borderlands and wanted to taste the influence of Chinese cuisine or sample the history of La Chinesca, which dish would you recommend as an entry point?

As a culture that is thoroughly subscribed to wings, I think my La Chinesca-Style Salt
and Pepper Wings are a great intro to ingredients you may not normally use in your
pantry. Ingredients that you can then cross-utilize in the other recipes in the book.

There’s so much love for your family in this book. Is there a Zepeda family dish you still cook regularly at home on a weekly basis?

My kids are big on enchiladas, albondigas and arroz con leche in heavy rotation.
Including the accompanying rice, beans, tortillas and salsa.

There are many readers, including myself, who know very little about the borderlands. I feel like I’ve learned so much about both American and Mexican history and this very special region. What are you hoping readers take away from this book?

I hope that they see the beauty in the region, the resilience and the delicious improvised dishes that became icons of the regions and the people behind them. I never want to talk about the arbitrary line in the dirt and the often villainized context that follows. I want to talk about beauty, connections, community and marriages. Food is one of the most political aspects of humanity and often weaponized. I don’t need to add to that rhetoric. We build extensions to our tables in the borderlands and in Mexico. Grab a crate if there isn’t a chair. Everyone gets a plate.

Do you think food has the power to open minds? And if so, how?

Absolutely, everyone has to eat and no one should ever feel hunger pains. At the table, breaking bread, people listen. Their guards are usually down; it’s a primitive response. When you have a captive audience eating, it is a great time to discuss hard topics. I come from a family who heavily debated during all meals. We were challenged on world topics, local topics, pop trivia. Helped develop an inquisitive, creative and curious mind. Who is never afraid to question the status quo or forge a new path. I got that from food. When I see ingredients across a counter, I don’t think, which can’t I use because my food may not be considered “Mexican”[?] I think, imagine the possibilities of flavor development if I marry these two things! Traditions are not static; we keep moving forward with food.

How do you see the food of the borderlands evolving over the next century?

Getting the recognition it deserves. From the Pacific to the Gulf of Mexico, there are
some incredibly talented cooks, and the generations coming in are pushing the creative boundaries of what has been, and the result will be delicious.