Carmen Ramírez Degollado

Carmen Ramírez Degollado (born 1940, Xalapa) is an internationally recognized expert on traditional Mexican food, head of the El Bajío restaurants located in Mexico City. She grew up in the rural area of Xalapa, Veracruz with no intentions of becoming a restaurateur. However, when her husband died in 1981, she took over the restaurant he founded and expanded it adding dishes from her native Veracruz and other Mexican states along with the carnitas and barbacoa that he made. Carmen’s international recognition began when she accompanied her daughter who went abroad to study to become a professional chef. This led to classes, consulting and participation in gastronomic events principally in the United States and Europe.

Life Carmen Ramírez Degollado was born in 1940 in Xalapa, Veracruz, a colonial city in the mountains of the state, surrounded by nature and coffee fields. From the colonial period to the 19th century, it was a prosperous city and developed its own variant on Mexican cuisine. She was born Carmen Hernández Oropeza, but she is professionally known with her late husband’s last names, as well as the nickname “Titita.”

Carmen was raised traditionally to be a housewife and mother, which included cooking Women were also prominent in the family, as they generally outnumbered the men.

With her husband, Carmen had five children. Her oldest child, Raúl is a mathematician and her other son, José Guillermo, is a commercial pilot. Her three daughters have worked with the restaurant at some point in their lives. Maricarmen is an administrator of the restaurant chain. Luz María is also in business administration, managing the Azcapotzalco location. María Teresa studied to become a professional chef in England, Canada and San Francisco. She worked for a time as a pastry chef in Spain at the Drolma restaurant in Barcelona, but today owns several pastry shops in Mexico City.

She never planned on having a career in the restaurant business, but the changes made the restaurant a success, allowing her to send her children to some of the best private universities in Mexico.

The original restaurant is still in an industrial zone in Azcapotzalco. The menu of the restaurant concentrates on dishes from Veracruz, Puebla, Michoacán and Oaxaca, but it strongly reflects Carmen’s Veracruz heritage.

The restaurant attracts both common and distinguished diners as well as tourists from other parts of Mexico and abroad. At the urging of her children, in 2006, the Bajío name branched out into other areas of Mexico City. Today there are ten locations.

Other gastronomic activities She is considered one of the most important experts on Mexican cuisine, along with Patricia Quintana, Monica Patiño and Alicia Gironella. However, she was never trained as a chef and proudly calls herself a “cocinera” (cook) . One of her preoccupations is the preservation of traditional Mexican cooking. She says she has great respect for the women of areas such as Oaxaca, Veracruz and Michoacán who still cook with firewood and charcoal. The book was named the Best Chef Book in Spanish award as an honorary mention in the Best Chef Book in the World category at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards as well in Paris in 2002.

Her recognitions include a Five Star Diamond Award from the American Academy of Hospitality Sciences for the El Bajío restaurant in 1998, regular invitations to participate in the Festival Annual del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de Mexico (Annual Festival of the Historic Center of Mexico City), La Llave Empresarial award from AMAIT and ABASTUR in 2006 and 2008 and the CANIRAC entrepreneur prize in 2009. It also includes membership in the Asociación Mexicana de Restaurantes and the International Association of Chefs in the United States.