Kris Rudolph

Owner of La Cocina & Director of Delicious Expeditions

Kris Rudolph lives and works in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico where she owns and operates El Buen Café, a restaurant and catering business she's had since 1991. Her cooking school, La Cocina, opened in 2005 and offers hands-on classes in Mexican cuisine.

Kris began her culinary teaching career at the University of Massachusetts, where she received a master's degree in Hotel and Restaurant Administration. She's taught cooking throughout the States, most notably at the Institute of Culinary Education in New York City and various Whole Foods schools in Texas. Kris's classes and tours have been written up in Bon Appetit, Texas Monthly, Chile Pepper Magazine, the Miami Herald, and the Washington Post, to name a few. She received the IACP Special Recognition Award in 2013.

In her spare time, when she's not involved in an employee-related drama or cooing over baby pictures of her beloved baboon Betty, a foster primate in Africa, Kris leads culinary tours in Mexico and Europe.

Her literary achievements include three cookbooks: Recipes and Secrets from El Buen Café, Mexican Light, and Savoring San Miguel. She's currently looking for a publisher (if you happen to know anyone) for her memoir, "Stumbling toward Paradise." A chapter from the book was recently published at  Hippocampus Literary Magazine.

Kris firmly believes in the art of eating well and that not one bite or calorie should be wasted on mediocre fare. She discovered this at an early age while devouring a vat of butter with a mini-loaf of homemade bread her grandmother prepared each day as an after school snack. Her parents were horrified at her over-zealous appetite, her grandmother so pleased she melted more butter. And that was just the beginning.

Kris's chosen path has led her to seek and many times find some of the world's best food. From pizza slathered in truffle cream in an off-the-beaten-track Tuscan village to the surprising simplicity of a perfect potato in Slovenia, she'll share with you her discoveries, as well as her culinary secrets and obscure travel-related knowledge.