Moderated by Jonathan Gold, L.A. Weekly Restaurant Critic

Mexican culture has always been central to Los Angeles. But only in the last dozen years or so has L.A. become a vital center of Mexican cuisine, bristling with restaurants presenting the regional dishes of practically every state in Mexico, as well as with creative restaurants showcasing the best of Mexican cuisine. Zócalo has gathered together some of the best and most innovative chefs in Los Angeles, including Gilberto Cetina of the splendid Yucatecan restaurant Chichen Itza, Martin del Campo and Ramiro Arvizu of the groundbreaking cenaduría La Casita Mexicana, and Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger of Santa Monica’s award-winning Border Grill, for a round-table discussion on the state-of-the-art in Mexican cooking in Los Angeles, moderated by L.A. Weekly’s Pulitzer-winning restaurant critic Jonathan Gold. They’ll talk about the rise of regional cuisines, relationships with farmers and growers, the place of the restaurant within Mexican-American culture, and the difficulty of introducing challenging dishes to customers more intent on chips and margaritas than on cuisine.