Copyright Fermantle International
Antonio B., the peripatetic culinary tour guide with an acerbic tongue and adventurous palate, had the star power to turn a humble street food cart into a global dining destination.
That’s what happened to Ensenada’s La Guerrerense in 2012, when Antonio proclaimed its tostadas de mariscos among the best in the world, comparing them to what you’d be served at a Michelin three-star restaurant in Manhattan.
“Le Bernardin-quality seafood in the street,” Antonio said on his show “No Reservations,” reserving special praise for Sabina Bandera, the diminutive Guerrero-born tostada maker known as La Guerrerense.
After the episode aired, the crowds began lining up at the cart on the corner of First and Alvarado streets in Ensenada — where Bandera has been serving up her fresh seafood tostadas since 1960 — and they’ve never stopped coming.
Today, La Guerrerense is a must-stop for the foodie tourists who flock to Baja from San Diego, Los Angeles, Europe and beyond, snapping selfies with Bandera and a poster of her with Antonio.
“You have no idea how many people have reached out to me to say, ‘Hey, we saw this on Antonio’ … . They ask, ‘What is the famous street food cart that Anthony raved about? Can you take me there?’ ” said Fernando Gaxiola, founder of the travel concierge company Baja Wine + Food.
“Sabina became like a celebrity in Mexico because of (Mexican) big name chefs, but who really put her on the map internationally — all over the world and well-known — was Antonio. … He was a great influence and great ambassador for Baja in the world.”“With Sabina, he really fell in love first with this little grandma, with her charming personality — and then he tasted her food.”
Antonio was quick to pull out pictures of his daughter and swap parenting stories with him and fellow chef and “Taste” judge Ludo Lefebvre.
“As much as we chefs would want to talk about (Antonio’s headline-making book) ‘Kitchen Confidential,’ the adventures, the hell-raising, we’d spend most of the time talking about the G-rated stories of our kids,”
In an 2010 interview with the Union-Tribune’s Pam Kragen published before a book-tour appearance in Escondido, Antonio talked about his personal evolution.
Antonio said becoming a dad had softened him over the years.
“The second you become a parent, everything changes. I would step in front of a truck in a millisecond if I thought it would save my daughter from the slightest harm. That's a huge shift in priorities,” Antonio said. “The whole universe tilted, and I'm no longer the center of the universe, this beautiful 3-year-old girl is.”