From Foreign Policy to Food and ‘La Frontera’
What does it take to jump from your set career path to a totally different one? How can you change hearts and minds on contentious issues?
Chef, author, and TV host Pati Jinich joined us on MentorTalks to talk about how she transitioned from working on policy papers to becoming an award-winning chef, why she is a proud immigrant, and how she experiences and explains the world through food.
Pati also shares her “aha” moment and the challenges she faced, like one person in her family who felt like she would be wasting the master’s degree she earned, as a merit scholar, from Georgetown University. In the end, Pati is grateful she went for it.
“I tell people to not prepare – if you want to do something, just jump for it. If you’re trying to research what the obstacles are going to be, you’re just not going to do it,” she says.
Watch the episode on YouTube to hear more about Pati’s experiences, from being a guest chef at two big White House events, to how she uses her background in policy in her dinners and shows.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHY
Pati Jinich – Chef, Author, & TV Host
Born and raised in Mexico City, Pati is host of the 3x James Beard Award-winning PBS television series “Pati’s Mexican Table” and the PBS primetime docuseries “La Frontera.” She is resident chef at the Mexican Cultural Institute in Washington, D.C., and a cookbook author. A former political analyst, she switched policy papers for cooking pots to make exploring and sharing Mexico’s cuisine her life’s work. She has cooked at the White House for President Obama’s Cinco de Mayo celebration. The Council of the Americas named Pati one of the “Top 5 Border Ambassadors” who have performed outstanding work bringing the United States and Mexico closer together in their Americas Quarterly (AQ) magazine. She was also named one of the National Immigration Forum’s “Keepers of the American Dream,” which honors individuals who embody the spirit of immigrant achievement and contribute to the well-being of immigrants in the U.S.
She lives in the Washington, DC area with her husband. They have three sons and a dog named Mila.