Mexico One Plate at a Time With Rick Bayless

Standing amid the excavated layers of ancient civilizations in the Templo Mayor, Rick points out that Mexican cooking has always been a product of diverse cultural influences.

Rick cannot resist the kind of well-seasoned, simple food grilled over a live fire that he has enjoyed at thousands of markets, kitchens, and restaurants all over Mexico.

With more than 20 million people, and a dazzlingly rich cultural and culinary history, Mexico City is like its own planet—and these days, it's a younger, hipper planet than ever.

Tequila has come around—from "lick the salt and suck the lime" firewater, to chic drink of connoisseurs and hipsters alike.

Join Rick as he sets out to find the kind of ultimate serenity he has always sought out in his favorite "secret gardens" of Mexico.

Rick and his daughter, Lanie, check out Mexico's real-life superhero subculture: the surreal, splashy world of Lucha Libre.

Sure, there are great male chefs in Mexico. But women are the true mothers of this cuisine that comes from a rich tradition of hearth, home, and women's hands.

Chilling out in Puerto Vallarta, the jewel of the Mexican Riviera, Rick gets thinking, not surprisingly, about food.

We find Rick somewhere in the jungles of Mexico, pondering the great questions of the ancient world—like, "what was for breakfast?"

Over a beautiful plate of food in the kitchen of his white-tablecloth restaurant, Topolobampo, Rick muses on the idea of culinary muses.

In Mexico, salsa is neither a dip nor an afterthought. It's an integral part of eating.

Rick heads for Jalisco, the place where mariachi music originated, to investigate the history and mystery of this "national soundtrack" of Mexico.