Luis Navarro, owner of Lola’s Mexican Cuisine, and Rick Bayless, chef and TV host
1:29pm | Luis Navarro, owner of Lola’s Mexican Cuisine restaurant on 4th Street, has teamed with chef and TV host Rick Bayless, for a week-long cooking excursion to Veracruz Mexico at the end of September. Navarro joined Bayless and a group of chefs from across the U.S. to study the local cuisine and its influences. Navarro was contacted by Culinary Adventures, an organization run by cookbook author Marilyn Tausend, who had heard of the restaurant through industry reviews and an article in the Los Angeles Times for things to do in Long Beach, which featured Lola’s.
The group was transported to a small colonial town called Coatepec about an hour outside of Veracruz, and to La Ceiba Grafica, a unique arts compound in an old coffee plantation, which houses artists from all over the world. The group attended two daily, three-hour intensive hands-on culinary classes with Bayless and Chef Roberto Santibañez.