PHOTOS BY DELCIA LOPEZ
On June 10, 2024, life for Ana Liz Pulido changed dramatically. Chef and owner of Ana Liz Taqueria in Mission, Texas, Pulido stunned the culinary world when she won the James Beard Foundation Award for Best Chef: Texas. The James Beard awards are considered the Oscars in the food industry in the United States.
“I am speechless. Thank you very much to the James Beard Foundation, and the first person I want to thank the most is my dad. I am 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,” Pulido said when accepting the honor.
A few weeks ago, this photojournalist had the pleasure of spending an afternoon with Pulido at her restaurant. I’d met her in the summer of 2023 when she was first nominated for a James Beard award and was a semifinalist. Pulido was deep in the corn masa en el molino that she has at her taqueria. Her wide eyes and contagious smile smoothed over the grainy texture of the yellow cornmeal that she uses daily to make her tortillas. On my recent trip back (after having been there many times) Pulido was super chido (cool). We laughed and talked about her newly expanded restaurant and the nicho where she has a statue of La Virgen de Guadalupe.
LOPEZ: What has happened to you since winning the James Beard award for Best Chef: Texas?
PULIDO: Yo creo que la … I think it is … the expansion of my restaurant. It was much needed. I was kind of scared because before I received the James Beard award, I had already bought the expansion. I was hoping to get more people in the restaurant. It was worth it. It is going very well, gracias a Dios … thank you God. I have more employees working prep, on the line, servers, and that helps a lot. The restaurant gets very crowded. Large families and groups are coming to eat, and there is space for them. Before I had room for only 12 persons; now I have enough for 50.
Many people come from out of town. Mucha gente viene de fuera. They want to meet me. They come here straight from the airport with their suitcases, and they tell me, ‘This is the place I wanted to come to first.” So I am in awe and super happy.
LOPEZ: What are your responsibilities in your restaurant?
PULIDO: “Pues todo … All of it, cooking, prep, line server, cashier, payroll, inventory, everything, but my favorite place is the kitchen.
LOPEZ: How did it all begin for you to become a chef?
PULIDO: My parents separated when I was a one-year-old, so I actually never lived with them. I lived with my grandmother. Todo el fin the semana … at the end of the week, I would go to Mexico to live with my father. I would work in his taqueria. I think I started when I was six years old. My playground was the taqueria. I would be in the kitchen helping, I was a waitress. Todo empezo ahi … It all began there for me. We would make all the meals, at Christmas and New Year’s too, me and my dad cooking.
I went to Sharyland High School, and there was a culinary course at the high school, but it was super basic. I wanted to learn culinary. The school sent me to a culinary program in Olmito, but you couldn’t get a degree. I went to Olmito all week for my classes. They would take you to competitions in Dallas and Corpus Christi. I did this my junior and senior years in high school. I was 16 years old.
When I went to the Culinary Institute of America in San Antonio, the teachers were stricter in San Antonio. The days were long. I would begin at 5 a.m. and get out at midnight. I stayed two years, so I earned an associate degree. They only offered that degree. If I wanted a bachelor’s degree, I would have had to go to the Culinary Institute of America in New York.
LOPEZ: What are your favorite ingredients?
PULIDO: Corn and flour … maiz and tortillas de harina. My mom and my abuelita would make tortillas at breakfast with carne asada and at dinner with carne deshebrada. I really like the blue corn, and the tortillas go well with cheese. (Flour tortillas are her favorite.)
LOPEZ: Take us back to the night of the James Beard Restaurant and Chef Awards. What were you feeling when they announced your name as the winner of Best Chef: Texas?
PULIDO: How did I feel? I was wearing high heels, and I couldn’t stand the pain, so I took them off in the ceremony. Nothing was going to happen, I thought. My mom was like, “Put them on.”
My mom was sitting right next to me. And when they read the names, my name was the last name. Then they announced my name — “The winner is Ana Liz Pulido, Ana Liz Taqueria.” They repeated my name twice. I couldn’t believe it.
Before, when I was sitting in the audience, my friends told me to write something to say if I won. But when I went up on stage, I just spoke in English and then in Spanish No tengo palabras pero agrazar a todos los mexicanos. Muchisimas gracias a todos. [I was] thanking my family, my employees and the people who have supported me. That night, I was very happy. I wasn’t feeling any more pain. I was shocked. Afterwards, a lot of people were congratulating me, taking pictures with me. My life changed 360 in that moment. I still can’t believe it. I am so grateful.
- Ana Liz Taqueria is located at 215 N. Conway Ave. in Mission, Texas. The restaurant is open every day from 4 to 10 p.m.
When you go, Lopez recommends her ultimate favorite, tacos de alambre — obvio!! It’s a flour tortilla hecha a mano, made by hand, with fajita, grilled bell peppers, onions and costra (fried melted cheese). Yummm! Make sure to order the vampiros de fajita — deliciosos. The name of the dish is inspired by the fried dark blue corn tortilla, which resembles the night sky when vampires come out to eat. The frijoles a la charra are also delightfully tasty. A must-try are the papas picosas, small new potatoes doused in a chile piquin seco and Pulido’s homemade salsas. You’ ll need an agua bien fresca to douse the heat.
