"The most important room in our house in Mexico was the huge kitchen. We six children went in with our bicycles; our mother was cooking, we all helped. Our grandparents were there -- our father, a lawyer, was always encouraging family life around the table. That is the way I got my interest in food," said Margarita Carrillo de Salinas. Chef of the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture, Margarita is a frequent visitor to Japan. She comes here whenever she is to take charge of Mexican food festivals and gala dinners.
Most recently she was here for the Mexican pavilion at the Aichi Expo. She is a keen, warm-hearted observer, applauding every scene. "I love Japan," she said. "It is a beautiful country."
Belonging to a family with a strong Mexican cooking tradition, Margarita always cooked. "It was part of my life. I never thought of it as a profession," she said. She took a BA in education at the National University of Mexico. "I always liked to teach adults, and made adult teaching my specialty," she said. After training in London, she added the qualification of teaching English as a second language.