Spanish chef eager to make his mark in Beijing

Jordi Villegas can't wait for his mama to visit China's capital.

First, the 37-year-old Spanish chef says, because the demands of his job have kept him from going to his home near Barcelona for the past three years. Second, mom Elvira is an accomplished chef in her own right, who visited her son in Hong Kong and teamed up with him for a weeklong guest-chef stint with him in his restaurant there.

They plan to do that again in Beijing, to kick off a Spanish Cuisine Month at the Renaissance Wangfujing hotel in the capital, where Villegas has been ensconced as executive chef since last summer. But the eager son will have to be patient a bit longer, until mom recovers from knee surgery this spring.