Marcela Valladolid

Professional chef and cookbook author Marcela Valladolid has a fresh take on food and is dedicated to sharing simple and authentic recipes for Mexican dishes. In her new Food Network daytime series, Mexican Made Easy, Marcela draws on her dual Mexican and Southern California upbringing to create a straightforward approach to preparing real, fresh, authentic Mexican food at home.

Growing up in Tijuana, Mexico, mere miles from the California border, Marcela had the culinary world at her fingertips from a young age. Her grandmother opened one of the first cooking schools in Baja, Mexico, and her grandfather was an expert chef. Wanting to explore all cultural cuisines, Marcela studied at the Los Angeles Culinary Institute and went on to graduate as a classical French pastry chef from the Ritz Escoffier Cooking School in Paris.

Marcela's craving to cook and her professional training led her to a position as Food Editor for Bon Appetit magazine, and a chance to host her own cooking show on Discovery en Español, Relatos con Sabor ("Stories with Flavor"). She later appeared as a contestant on The Apprentice: Martha Stewart, where she finished in fourth place.

In August of 2009, Marcela's first cookbook, FRESH MEXICO: 100 Simple Recipes for True Mexican Flavor (Clarkson Potter) hit shelves to rave reviews. Readers and critics praised her use of ingredients easily found in any American supermarket, while creating authentic Mexican dishes that don't include crunchy tacos and cheese-stuffed quesadillas.

Marcela lives in San Diego, CA with young son Fausto, and keeps busy exercising her culinary skills by running a catering company and teaching children about food and cooking in her hometown of Tijuana.