Marcela Valladolid

It's easy to lose sight of what traditional Mexican cuisine is when we're surrounded by inauthentic dishes such as overflowing burritos and nachos drowning in liquid cheddar cheese. Chef Marcela Valladolid is here to show us that anyone can capture authentic Mexican flavors without the fuss. As Marcela always says, "there is no yellow cheese in real Mexican cooking."

Marcela is host of the Food Network's hit show, Mexican Made Easy. Inspired by her dual Mexican and Southern California upbringing, she transforms stereotypes of the cuisine into healthy and easy-to-prepare Mexican meals.

Born in San Diego and raised in Tijuana, Mexico, Marcela jumped straight into a culinary life at an early age. Her grandfather was a chef in Mexico and her aunt opened one of the first cooking schools in Tijuana, Mexico where Marcela got her first job. She went on to study at the Los Angeles Culinary Institute and graduated as a classical French pastry chef from the Ritz Escoffier Cooking School in Paris.

Marcela's passion for food and her classical training landed her a job at Bon Appetit magazine where she served as one of the magazines food editors.

In August 2009, Marcela was given the chance to showcase her family recipes when she released her first cookbook, FRESH MEXICO: 100 Simple Recipes for True Mexican Flavor . With the book, Marcela became the advocate for great Mexican food that delivers in freshness and flavor without forcing home cooks to track down hard-to-find ingredients or spend hours at the stove.

Marcela is certainly on the fast track to chef stardom, where she is living her dream at the Food Network and sharing her love of Mexican cuisine with audiences all over the world.