Maricela Vega learned early that a dish can rise or fall on the right ingredient. The Atlanta-based chef says her mother, who is from a village in Guanajuato, Mexico, was very particular about her peppers. “When we would go to Mexico, she would say we had to get these peppers from these stalls for these reasons,” she recalls. “I didn’t understand it then.”
Now sourcing is everything to Vega. The deliciousness of an ingredient matters, of course, but so do its provenance and the personal connections she makes with farmers and producers. “I think about it all,” she
