Texas border towns are recognized for embracing a blend of Texas pride and Mexican culture. As most Mexican restaurants experiment in Tex-Mex cuisines, rarely do chefs whip up their own spin on traditional dishes.
But when they do, it showcases the beauty of the one-of-a-kind flavor – or as most Mexicans would say, “sazón” – that Mexico has to offer.
Ana Liz Pulido is a chef from Mission, a town in the Rio Grande Valley, who won the 2024 James Beard Award for “Best Chef: Texas.” This summer, taco journalist Mando Rayo interviewed her for the “Tacos of Texas” podcast. That episode just released this week.
Rayo joined the Standard to dish on their conversation. Listen to the interview above or read the transcript below.
This transcript has been edited lightly and translated for clarity:
Texas Standard: Tell me, who is Ana Liz Pulido? What type of food does she cook? What’s her restaurant called?
Mando Rayo: The restaurant is Ana Liz Taqueria, and it is worth going down to the Rio Grande Valley to try anything she whips up.
She started in high school. She was selling snacks next to her dad’s truck, selling Nutella pies and even selling elotes out of the back of her car. But now, she went to culinary school and she’s doing some great things with Mexican cooking.
I mean, we see a lot of upscale Mexican food. Is this that kind of food or is it more the stuff that a lot of people grew up with, or something in between?
I would say it is definitely somewhere in between, because what she’s doing is some of her favorite dishes or tacos, if you will, or taco-adjacent – like these little pieces of Mexico for her.
So, whether it’s a vampiro, which is a tostada with maybe griddle cheese on it, al pastor or carne asada, to a chile relleno taco. Definitely you’re not going to get what you could expect to see in the Valley – a lot of those Tex-Mex flavors, like the Luby’s special sauce, you know? It’s a proper taqueria, where you can get what you want and get a little piece of Mexico.
Well, let’s listen to a clip of Pulido’s speech when she won James Beard Award for best Chef in Texas:
Ana Liz Pulido: Thank you so much the James Beard Foundation. And the first person I wanna thank is my Dad. I’m so grateful and honored to represent the Rio Grande Valley. We are a small town in South Texas, just minutes from the border of Mexico.
So, no tengo palabras, pero quiero agradecer a todos los mexicanos.
Estoy demasiado feliz.
Muchísimas gracias a todos mis trabajadores, a mi familia y a todas las personas que me han apoyado, a mi comunidad y estoy muy agradecida.
¡Viva México!
I love it – hearing that and the folks cheering for her. So, she mentioned her dad, and this came up in your conversation as well. He’s really important to who she’s become.
Yeah. Her dad was definitely her biggest influence in cooking. He had a truck in Reynosa, in fact, it was just like a hamburger truck.
She was really into helping and being in the kitchen, and he was able to carve out a little space for her in Reynosa for her to sell like just little snacks, like papas locas and things that kids love. Then every gathering like New Year’s Eve, he would cook up kind of like the big mix of different Mexican dishes.
Well, let’s hear a bit of your conversation again.
Ana Liz Pulido: Entonces, a mi mamá no le gusta mucho cocinar.
Mando Rayo: No le hace, no le hace.
Ana Liz Pulido: Pero a mi papá le encanta. La familia de mi papá, su mamá también le gusta mucho la cocina y así, pero de la parte materna no tanto. Entonces, el 31 mi papá siempre cocinaba para su familia. Entonces, pues siempre me gustó.
Mando Rayo: Para el nuevo año.
Ana Liz Pulido: Uh huh, New Year.
Pero siempre hacía el menú él mismo. Tamales veracruzanos, pollo pecas, ya sabes que los aices y todo. Papas picosas y todo. Y siempre me gusta ayudarle. Y ya hubo, como varios años, que ya casi me lo dejaba casi todo. De que, pues, ‘yo nada más te vigilo’ y no más like make sure que todo está bien.
Entonces, ahí fue cuando me empezó a gustar más. Y te digo, iba también los fines de semana como a ayudarles, pero no me dejaban tanto estar en la cocina, porque como estaba muy chica, era como no es que ‘no te vayas a cortar’ o ‘no va a hacer algo mal, porque pues, no lo van a regresar’ y todo ese rollo. Entonces, nomás estaba ahí como ayudándoles en lo que pudiera de preparar y así.
Pero no tanto como en la línea como me hubiera gustado estar. Pero no, sí, pues yo creo que ahí vino el amor por la cocina. Te digo, a mi papá le gusta mucho la cocina, a mi abuelita también.
Mando Rayo: Ajá, tu abuelita.
Ana Liz Pulido: Entonces, pues, ahí se vino todo.
She says my mom didn’t do the cooking, so she’s really talking about growing up and in her family’s kitchen. Kind of underscoring what you said earlier about how important that has been to the cooking that she does today.
Yeah, for sure. You know, I think that influenced a lot of her upbringing, so much so that she was introduced to it at a young age. And so, whether it’s the New Year’s Eve gathering that they had, to actually going and being a helper in her dad’s truck, that influence was there.
Although, she did say that her mom knows how to make some great flour tortillas. Shout out to her mom, too.
But yeah, I think that’s part of that idea of like, “hey, this is part of who I am.” And now obviously going into formalizing her idea of being a chef and going to the Culinary Institute of America, and formalizing that and now being a James Beard Award winner.
So, Ana Liz Taqueria in Mission is worth a visit. What makes it so special? Is it getting busy now?
Yeah, they are getting busy.
I think part of it is the experience of visiting a border town. You know, we as Austinites think we have it good here, but nah. There’s nothing like the border, where you can get into some of that food and those dishes.
But how she’s making it unique, I think it just comes from how deeply rooted she is in her duality of living in Mexico and in the United States, and those dishes. You know, the tacos, or if you want, a carne asada, a vampiro, even some botanas – you can have them there. And it’s not just the generic Tex-Mex, it is something that’s unique to her flavor profile.
