Chile Queen returning to K-State for culinary workshop
Jane Butel wears the title Chile Queen with aplomb. Often credited with starting the Tex-Mex cooking craze, she wrote and taught about Southwestern and regional Mexican cuisine before most people knew how to pronounce “jalapeno.”
Butel will bring her internationally famous skills to K-State on Thursday, Feb. 25, and Friday Feb. 26, for the annual Culinary Enhancement Workshop sponsored by the department of hospitality management and dietetics.
After graduating from K-State’s College of Human Ecology with a degree in home economics and journalism and landing in such hefty positions as vice president for American Express in New York, Butel became a devotee of the chile and its accompanying cuisines. She has written “Real Women Eat Chiles,” published by Northland in 2006, and 19 other cookbooks.