Mexico City Culinaria

Iliana de la Vega won worldwide acclaim for her restaurant and cooking school in Oaxaca, El Naranjo, which was featured in numerous newspapers and magazines, such as The New York Times and Bon Appetit. The reincarnation of El Naranjo in Austin has been recognized as the best Mexican restaurant in the city. Before the brick and mortar restaurant came into being, de la Vega owned El Naranjo Mobile and Catering, a successful food trailer that was called, “the only real Mexican restaurant in Texas” by Texas Monthly magazine. She is a 2019 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Southwest, a 2020 James Beard Award semifinalist for Best Chef: Texas, and a 2022 James Beard Award winner for Best Chef: Texas. She is also a passionate teacher and served as the Mexican/Latin Cuisines Specialist for The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) from 2007 to 2012. In 2014, the Mexican Government granted her the prestigious Ohtli award in recognition for her work with the Hispanic population and for furthering Mexican gastronomy. That same year, the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce named her Hispanic Female Entrepreneur of the year. She currently also serves as a consultant for the prestigious Stanford University Dining Enterprises.

It’s here in mountainous, colorful Oaxaca where all of Isabel’s childhood memories take place. As the youngest daughter of Chef Iliana de la Vega, Isabel was fortunate to spend her days hiding under the restaurant’s tables and learning to cook (and eat) Mexican food. Though Isabel always imagined she too would be a chef one day, she came to realize that her food-related talents lay more with eating than cooking, so she became a cultural anthropologist and journalist instead. Food always finds its way back into her mind, prompting her to focus a significant portion of her research and writing on gastronomy. Isabel believes food cannot be fully understood without proper context and likes to think of it—the ingredients, the rituals of eating—in relation to place, people, and the history and circumstances that led to its creation. Her approach to travel as well as food writing is shaped by this idea. Isabel’s work has appeared in Atlas Obscura, Food52, Slate Magazine, LA Review of Books, The Art of Eating, Edible Austin, and Eater, among others.