In the summer, tostadas topped with chicken, poblanos, and diced potatoes are a popular snack in the beach town of Yelapa, Jalisco, just south of her hometown of Puerto Vallarta.

finale with the obituary in his pocket.. “I was in the moment in Milan,” he says.“We could have been in Detroit for all I cared.

It wouldn’t have mattered if it were there on the moon.I had a singular focus: I wanted to tell my story, cook my food.”.The challenge for Epps and his fellow contestants Bailey Sullivan, from Chicago, and Shuai Wang, of Charleston, was to make the best four-course progressive dinner of their lives.. No pressure.. For the judges at the table, including me, it was clear by the end of the meal that no matter how good Sullivan’s and Wang’s dishes were, and no matter how evident their talent, Epps was cooking and competing at a different level.

His third course, an exceptional riff on oxtail Milanese, likely sealed his win.To make it Epps braised the oxtails, picked the tender meat from the bone, sauced it, and formed it into the shape of the traditional circular Milanese cut of ossobucco.

He served the delicate, sticky oxtails over curry-spiced Carolina rice grits, conjuring flavors of West Africa, the Caribbean, and the American South while also paying homage to Milan..

In my eight years of guest judging on.I'm a waiter and always will be.

When you've done it for as long as I have, it becomes a part of your identity and even if I ever find myself between restaurant jobs, it will forever remain a piece of me.Did you ever get stabbed by a pencil in elementary school and you were left with a teeny, tiny pencil tattoo on your skin that you can still see today?

That's what waiting tables is like.When the pencil punctured your skin, it hurt.