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Carnitas hiss in lard and black beans bubble as Chef Gabriela Cámara talks tortillas. “I’ve been making them this way since I was eight,” she says, kneading the masa harina dough. She tests the temperature of her comal, a traditional tortilla griddle, with her bare fingertips without flinching. It’s only 10:30 AM in our studio kitchen, but Cámara needs no warming up before we begin shooting. And there’s no stopping her. She is, after all, chef-owner of nine restaurants in Mexico and one in the US. Cámara never intended to be a food tycoon. The restaurant industry practically fell into her lap while she was studying art history in Mexico City. She and her friends loved eating fresh grilled fish on the coast but noticed that the city was missing a seafood scene, so she opened Contramar. Diners gobbled up her fresh tuna tostadas and grilled fish slathered with a striking duo of red and green chile sauces. “I’m taking advantage of a hole," she says, "of a missing part of cuisine in a city where people are so obsessed with food.” From stuffing tacos to building a Mexican restaurant empire, Cámara is skilled at filling the gaps. In San Francisco, a city that’s notoriously hard to find steady waitstaff, she opened her latest restaurant, Cala, with staff consisting mostly of ex-cons who have come through job-placement programs and halfway houses. “In Mexico, I’ve had all these characters...They get it together because they see an opportunity,” she explains. “I didn’t want to use it as a publicity tool...I did not have that pretension.”Cámara certainly favors deliciousness over pretension in her cooking as well, and that's why she’s created her Mexican Street Food class with us. You’ll learn to griddle homemade corn tortillas that taste nuttier and softer than any store-bought version; they're a key component of Cámara's tangy shredded chicken tacos, Baja-style fish tacos, deep-fried quesadillas, and egg-stuffed breakfast, all topped with homemade tongue-tingling condiments from Yucatán-style pickled onions to fresh salsa verde. There’s even more antojitos (literally "little cravings") in this colorful cooking course, and as Cámara will show you, they’re just as craveable in your kitchen as they are off the street.Gabriela's Restaurants:Contramar (CDMX, Mexico) Cala (San Francisco, CA)

Spend a day cooking with Emma Bengtsson, executive chef at Aquavit in New York, and you’ll discover that there’s way more to Swedish cuisine than those iconic meatballs (even though hers are some of the best we’ve ever tasted). But you can still trace nearly everything Bengtsson makes today to the lessons she first learned as an apprentice to the most authentic Scandinavian chef she knew: her grandmother.“I cook food that I love to eat,” she says. “It’s food that comes from where I’m from. It’s what I grew up eating.”Today, however, she’s far removed from her childhood in the small Swedish fishing town of Falkenberg: Bengtsson lives in New York City, where she stands at the helm of Aquavit, for which she’s earned two Michelin stars. “Obviously it’s a little more complicated,” she says of the upscale fare served at her elegant Manhattan establishment, “but the flavor is still there.”Before arriving in New York, Bengtsson spent 9 years as a pastry chef in Stockholm’s busiest and most lauded kitchens (which is probably why her caramelized almond tart and chocolate cake are so stunning). Her talent eventually caught the eye of Aquavit’s former executive chef, Håkan Swahn, who recruited her for the pastry position. She took the restaurant by storm, reinventing the menu with her dazzling desserts and instituting a new bread program. However, when she was offered the executive chef job, she was hesitant: “It wasn’t necessarily, at that point, something that I felt like I could handle,” she admits. “But the more I got familiar with it, and thanks to my amazing people in the kitchen who pushed me and encouraged me on, it got easier.”Perhaps it's not surprising that Bengtsson has fearlessly forged a unique path in the fine-dining world, since even her hobbies are varied and surprising. In her spare time, she’s an avid practitioner of bachata, a dance form originating in the Dominican Republic; she participates in international summits and competitions. Plus, as the daughter of two parents who were in the military, Bengtsson also likes to practice her marksmanship at firing ranges.Fortunately for us, Bengtsson found time between the dancing and shooting to share some of her favorite Scandinavian classics with us. Whether it's silky cabbage stuffed with luscious beef and pork, a delicate casserole of potatoes and gravlax, or a heavenly caramelized almond toscatårta, these dishes are a sampling of clean, elegant Swedish cuisine at its most delectable.Emma's Restaurant:Aquavit (New York, NY)