Rick Bayless is the author of six cookbooks, including Mexican Everyday. His product line of prepared foods is sold coast to coast. He owns and operates three award-winning restaurants in Chicago: the casual Frontera Grill, named "Outstanding Restaurant" of the year by the James Beard Foundation; the 4-star fine-dining Topolobampo; and XOCO, a LEED gold-certified quick-serve restaurant that opened in September of last year. Rick won Bravo's Top Chef Masters competition and was named National Chef of the Year by the James Beard Foundation.
Deann Groen Bayless has coauthored six books with Rick; co-owns and co-operates Frontera Grill, Topolobampo, and XOCO with him; and feels she's done a pretty good job nurturing along their teenage daughter, Lanie. She is a former president of Women Chefs and Restaurateurs, a national organization that promotes the education and advancement of women in the restaurant industry, and is the administrator of the Frontera Farmer Foundation. - (Blackwell Publishing)