Bricia Lopez is an entrepreneur, cultural ambassador, and key figure in the Los Angeles gastronomic scene. With her family’s James Beard Award–winning restaurant, Guelaguetza, in Los Angeles’s Koreatown, she and her siblings have put Oaxacan cuisine and culture at the forefront of today’s dynamic culinary scene. Her influence extends to the beverage industry, too. The New Yorker called Bricia the “queen of mezcal.” In 2019, she helped open Las Vegas’s first-ever mezcal bar—Mama Rabbit, inside the Park MGM. Her cookbook, Oaxaca: Home Cooking from the Heart of Mexico, published in fall 2019, was a 2020 James Beard nominee and became an Amazon bestseller with more than 750 five-star reviews.

Bricia and her siblings launched two direct-to-consumer brands: a proprietary michelada cocktail called I Love Micheladas™ and Guelaguetza™ mole pastes. Their products can also be found at hundreds of retailers across California. She has expanded her success into the digital world by launching the Super Mamas podcast with her sister Paulina and her blog Mole and More, where she shares simple recipes to cook at home with family. Bricia also holds lifestyle content creation partnerships with major brands. The mayor of Los Angeles appointed Bricia to the board of convention and tourism development in March 2019, and in 2020 she cofounded RE:Her, a nonprofit devoted to the advancement and empowerment of women restaurateurs. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband Eduardo, son, and daughter and frequently travels to Oaxaca.