Someingredients in Tex-Mex cuisine are also common inMexican cuisine, but others, not often used in Mexico, are often added, such as the use ofcumin, introduced by Spanish immigrants to Texas from theCanary Islands,[4] but used in only a few central Mexican recipes.
Sometimes various Tex-Mex dishes are made without the use of a tortilla. A common example of this is the "fajita bowl", which is afajita served without a soft tortilla.
Generally, cheese plays a much bigger role in Tex-Mex food than in mainstream Mexican cuisine, particularly in the popularity ofqueso, which is often eaten with tortilla chips (alongside or in place ofguacamole andsalsa), or may be served overenchiladas,tamales, orburritos.[5]
Nachos, although invented in the US-Mexico border town ofPiedras Negras, Coahuila, became extremely popular in Texas before spreading across the US. They were named after its inventor,Nacho Anaya.
Tex-Mex circa the 1950s relied on combination platters using American-style cheeses, did not often have margaritas, and involved pecans in desserts.[6]
A bowl ofchili served with traditional garnishes andtortilla chips.Original Ninfa'stacos al carbón andfajitas, popular grilled meat dishes in Tex-Mex cuisine.
The cuisine that would come to be called Tex-Mex originated withTejanos as a mix of native Mexican and Spanish foods when Texas was part of New Spain and later Mexico.[7]
From theSouth Texas region betweenSan Antonio, theRio Grande Valley andEl Paso, this cuisine has had little variation, and from earliest times has always been influenced by the cooking in the neighboring northern states of Mexico.[8]
Theranching culture of South Texas and Northern Mexico straddles both sides of the border, where beef, grilled food, and tortillas have been common and popular foods for more than a century.[8]
In the 20th century, as goods from the United States became cheap and readily available, Tex-Mex took on suchAmericanized elements asCheddar,jack, andpimento cheeses.[9]
In much of Texas, the cooking styles on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border were the same until a period after theU.S. Civil War. With the railroads, American ingredients and cooking appliances became common on the U.S. side.[10]
Around the 1970s the composition of dishes popular in Tex Mex changed;Ninfa's popularized thefajita beginning in 1973.[6]
A 1968Los Angeles Times feature wrote "[i]f the dish is a combination of Old World cooking, hush-my-mouthSouthern cuisine and Tex-Mex, it's from the Texas Hill Country."[11]
InFrance,Paris's first Tex-Mex restaurant opened in March 1983.[12] According to restaurateur Claude Benayoun, business had been slow, but after the 1986 release of the filmBetty Blue, which featured characters drinkingtequila shots and eatingchili con carne, "everything went crazy."[12] According to Benayoun, "Betty Blue was like ourEasy Rider; it was unbelievably popular in France. And after the movie came out, everybody in Paris wanted a shot of tequila and a bowl of chili."[12]
Tex-Mex became widely introduced in theNordic countries and theUnited Kingdom in the early 1990s through brands likeOld El Paso andSanta Maria, and very quickly became a staple meal in the Nordics.[13] Minor local variations on Tex-Mex in these areas are to usegouda cheese, or to substitute taco shells with stuffedpita breads. Previously, Tex-Mex had been sold on a limited scale inStavanger, Norway since the late 1960s.[14]
The word "TexMex" (unhyphenated) was first used to abbreviate theTexas Mexican Railway,chartered in southern Texas in 1875.[15] In the 1920s, thehyphenated form was used in American newspapers to describe Texans of Mexican ancestry.[15][16]
However, the term was used in an article in theBinghamton (New York)Press[18] in May 1960 and a syndicated article appearing in several American newspapers on October 6, 1960, uses the Tex-Mex label to describe a series of recipes, including chili and enchiladas.[19]
The recipes included the suggestion of "cornmeal pancakes" in place of tortillas, which at the time were not reliably available to readers outside of the Southwest.
Diana Kennedy, an influential food authority, explained the distinctions betweenMexican cuisine and Americanized Mexican food in her 1972 bookThe Cuisines of Mexico. Robb Walsh of theHouston Press said the book "was a breakthrough cookbook, one that could have been written only by a non-Mexican. It unified Mexican cooking by transcending the nation's class divisions and treating the food of the poor with the same respect as the food of the upper classes."[20]
The term "Tex-Mex" also saw increasing usage in theLos Angeles Times from the 1970s onward while the Tex-Mex label became a part of U.S. vernacular during the late 1960s, '70s, and '80s.[21] Adán Medrano, a chef who grew up in San Antonio, prefers to call the food "Texas Mexican," which he says was the indigenous cooking of South Texas long before theRio Grande marked the border between Texas and Mexico.[22]
Felix Tijerina was a successful restaurateur and civic leader who helped pioneer Tex-Mex cuisine through his dishes.
Born in 1905, Tijerina began working as a busboy at the Original Mexican Restaurant after moving toHouston in 1922.[23] He rose through the ranks and opened his restaurant, the Mexican Inn, in 1929.[23]
After serving in World War II, Tijerina opened a chain of restaurants named the Felix Mexican Restaurant.[24]
With mildly-spiced dishes and reasonable prices, Tijerina's restaurants catered more towards anAnglo audience.[23] Hisspaghetti con chile special exemplifies how Tijerina americanized traditional Mexican food to appeal to the local Texans.[23]
Tijerina used his influence and economic profit from the restaurant business to become active in politics.[23] In 1935, Tijerina joined the local council of LULAC (League of United Latin American Citizens), and eventually became the national president of the organization, holding the position from 1956 to 1960.[23]
Tijerina died in 1965, but his chain of Felix Mexican Restaurants continued to promote Tex-Mex cuisine until operations stopped in 2008.[24][25]
In 2011, Centeno opened his first restaurant, Bäco Mercat which became an instant success due to the multicultural menu.[27]
Centeno subsequently opened Bar Amá,[28] then Orsa & Winston[29] which received a Michelin star in June 2019.
Centeno's most recent Tex-Mex restaurant, Amácita,[30] opened in July 2019.[31]
Centeno has also written two cookbooks: Baco: Vivid Recipes from the Heart of Los Angeles (2017)[32] and Amá: a modern Tex-Mex kitchen (2019).[33]
Centeno has become a leading chef in Tex-Mex cuisine, receiving praise for both his restaurants and his cookbooks. While the New Yorker listed Centeno's Amá: a modern Tex-Mex kitchen as one of the best cookbooks in 2019, the LA Times named Orsa & Winston as the "Restaurant of the Year" in 2020.[34][27]
^Jennifer Steinhauer (February 10, 2014)."If It's Chili, It's Personal".The New York Times. RetrievedJanuary 6, 2015.it was Canary Islanders who brought a taste for it in heavy doses
^"Tex-Mex".Mexia Evening News. Mexia, Texas. May 23, 1922.
^Oxford English Dictionary entry for Tex-Mex: 1963N.Y. Times Mag. 11 Aug 50/1 Star of the evening was her Texas or Tex-Mex chili. 1966 Great Bend (Kansas) Daily Tribune 19 Oct 5/4 It's too bad that it has become known as ‘chili powder’ because some homemakers may associate it only with the preparation of ‘Tex-Mex’ dishes.
^Wheaton, D.R. & Carroll, G.R. (2017). Where did Tex-Mex Come From? The Divisive Emergence of a Social Category.Research in Organizational Behavior, 37, 143 – 166.
