Chef Rick Bayless to keynote Isthmus Green Day 2010

Isthmus - Rick Bayless -- award-winning chef-restaurateur, author and television personality -- is the keynote presenter at the 2010 Isthmus Green Day at Monona Terrace on Saturday, April 17.

Bayless recently won the title of Top Chef Master on the popular Top Chef Masters television program on the Bravo Network. As the winner, Bayless received $100,000 for his charity -- the Frontera Farmer Foundation. This is a nonprofit organization committed to promoting small, sustainable farms by providing them with capital development grants.

Bayless has written numerous critically acclaimed cookbooks, including Authentic Mexican: Regional Cooking From The Heart of Mexico (William Morrow, 1987). The New York Times’ legendary Craig Claiborne hailed this work as the “greatest contribution to the Mexican table imaginable”. His television show, Mexico: One Plate at a Time, is currently in its fifth season on PBS.

“I am excited to participate in Isthmus Green Day and visit Madison. Great food, like all art, enhances and reflects a community's vitality, growth and solidarity. Yet history bears witness that great cuisines spring only from healthy local agriculture, and I understand that Madison has that in abundance,” says Bayless.