Perhaps she isn’t your typical celebrity chef, but she’s the kind of chef you’d fall in love with—down to earth, humble and full of passion and creativity. You might also know her as the “Taco Lady”— yes, tacos are her weakness, and most likely you’ve seen her wearing one of her famous “I {heart} Tacos” t-shirts. Her cuisine is far from pretentious, it is “simple, fresh, Latin food,” said Isabel Cruz in a recent interview with VOXXI. And if you want to get know her better, she is one of the top culinary celebrities that will be participating in the Latin Food Festival, a six-city culinary tour that will take place in San Diego on September 12-15, 2013.

“Food is my passion. At breakfast I’m thinking about lunch. At lunch I’m thinking about dinner. I love the shopping, the preparing and the eating. I love the joy of a great meal. OK, I don’t love the cleaning up,” says Cruz on her website. Click here to read the complete article & interview.

Latin Food Fest will be descending upon San Diego to pay homage to Southern California and Northern Baja this September with a 4-day extravaganza. Beginning this Friday, April 12th, Visa cardholders can order online tickets to the many events the festival will be highlighting in San Diego later this year.

From September 12 – 15, the festival will bring together more than 70 wineries, distillers, chefs, restaurants, and artisan food makers to expand palates and entertain guests with the best of Baja food. All the while, the fest will be doing some good in the process: gathering resources to fight hunger in San Diego and deliver drinkable water to Baja.

Don’t miss: the opening Churros and Chocolate Breakfast for a sweet start to the weekend; Preparing and Prepping Spanish Tapas and Wine, a seminar on how to pair your favorite small bites; and the James Beard Baja-Med Dinner Benefit, a four-course tasting menu prepared by chef Miguel Angel Guerrero from La Querencia in Tijuana Mexico, chef Chad White of PlanCha Baja Med in San Diego, and chef Pablo Salas of Restaurante Amaranta from Toluca, Mexico. Click here to read the full article.

Her Fruit with Tequila Honey sauce was a huge hit.

FRUIT WITH TEQUILA HONEY SAUCE

1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup gold tequila

4 oranges peeled and sliced into half circles
1 pint raspberries
1 mango peeled and cubed
2 kiwis, peeled and sliced into half circles
1/4 cup chopped mint and or cilantro
1 serrano chilie sliced into thin circles

1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup gold tequila (add more or less to taste) [Click HERE for full recipe]

Restaurant Week kicks off Monday. Simple concept. Chefs create a special prix fixe menu. You pick an appetizer, entree and a dessert from a few options. And then they heavily,heavily discount the cost. So, go nuts. Only problem? There are 187 restaurants this year. A boatload. So I Casey Kasem’d the list down to theRESTAURANT WEEK TOP [...]