Chef/Tour Leader Daniel Hoyer's passion for cooking began during his preschool years, when he attentively assisted his grandmothers in the kitchen, and has continued to flourish thanks to a wide variety of experiences in his almost thirty-year professional career.  His stint as sous chef at Mark Miller’s Coyote Cafe in Santa Fe, New Mexico helped stimulate his ongoing regard for Southwestern and Latin American cooking and culture.  As a consultant and executive chef, Daniel has assisted in the startup of  restaurants in such widely scattered locales as Sydney, Salt Lake City, Los Angeles, Grand Cayman Island and most recently, as a representative of The Santa Fe School of Cooking, he developed menus and provided training for the  London-based, Southwestern-style restaurant chain, Santa fe.  Daniel and  Susan Curtis, owner of the school, co-authored the book, Tacos, published by Gibbs-Smith.

    Currently, he is teaching recreational cooking classes at the school,  consulting for restaurants around the world and is a leader of gastronomic adventure tours in Mexico.   Daniel's cookbook, Culinary Mexico, a regional exploration of authentic Mexican recipes is an international success and his latest effort, Fiesta on the Grill was published in August 2006.  Daniel lives in Pilar, New Mexico, in the Rio Grande valley, near Taos.

    Daniel has completed his next book, In the Jaguar's Kitchen, cooking from the Maya world,  which is planned for release in the spring of 2008.

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