Name: Rico Torres
Birthplace: El Paso, Texas
Claims to Fame: Chef, co-owner of Mixtli Progressive Culinaria and founder of El Paso Family Meal
Tipple of Choice: Mezcal, neat
Money Quote: "There are a lot of little details [in making a successful restaurant], from storytelling to the food to the cohesion to how the team grows. But harmony is probably the number one rule."
Chef Rico Torres has racked up national accolades for being half of the team behind Mixtli Progressive Culinaria, a lauded San Antonio restaurant that explores regional Mexican cusine using indigenous ingredients and techniques.
Through his travels on the festival circuit, Torres also has connected with other El Paso-born culinarians to launch Family Meal, a series of one-night dinners that benefit his native city. Typically cooked and served during restaurants' service lulls to feed staff, "family meals" are short interludes that allow employees to break bread before getting back to the grind.
We caught up with Torres to chat more about Family Meal, and the connections borne from the effort.
Let's start at the beginning: where did where did Family Meal come from?
So, back in about 2015 and 16, we were doing a lot of festivals, and kept running into friends that were also from El Paso. I didn't know chef Andre [Natera, formerly of the Fairmount Austin,] was from there. And so the conversation kind of got rolling, like, "Hey, we should go back home and cook. But if we cook together, then we should raise money to help the community." And it was really kind of a way for us to get together and hang out and cook, and it had to be open fires and it had to have views of the mountains. Gabe Erales, Fermin Nunez, Alan Delgado, Jake Rojas, Daniel Calleros, Omar Flores, myself. We were in the first roster, and we went to El Paso. I started working on logistics, hooked up with the owners of Ardovino's Desert Crossing, and they are about half a mile outside of El Paso. From there, you can see New Mexico, Mexico and El Paso — and the mountains, and the train passes by through the mountain. It was the perfect venue for us to have our first event.
How have the events fared so far?
The jokes were ridiculous, the camaraderie was, you know, something that I have personally been missing. And I just I loved it. And I know that it's really fun that we have that experience in common. We did the second one in Austin at the Fairmont, where chef Andre was executive chef at the time. The gang came out again. The third one was last year, again at Ardovino's, but a little bit bigger. And by this time, El Paso has a little bit of a fever for it. You know, the chefs there recognize that there's something big happening with their city, and it's a place that has so much talent.
This last one, we were able to include more people, add a lot of diversity in our group, but some of the chefs had some stuff going on. It was tough for them, but they still made it, because this is such a big commitment. And it's not like, "Hey, I want to cancel on this next big food festival that has millions of dollars and sponsors, and you know, it won't be a big deal if I'm not there." I would disappoint this group of guys that started this thing together. And so one of them had food poisoning, and he showed up anyway. He was like, green. The other one had had some family stuff going on, but he still showed up. And we made it all work out.
Tell me about the beneficiaries.
We donate to Annunciation House, they are a group in El Paso that will receive people being released from ICE detention centers, sometimes they're released right onto the street with no idea where they are, where they're headed. And [Annunciation House helps] with maybe a couple of months of shelter, some directions, a ride, some food, you know, some some basic human stuff to get them going on to their next the next leg of their destination. And that was great. El Paso Community Foundation connected us with El Paso's food bank, which reaches almost 10,000 square miles with community outreach groups and satellite kitchens. Because there's a lot of elderly people that live in some pretty rural areas out of the deserts. With seven cents, they can make one meal, so when we made our last donation, I think we sent enough for just over 92,000 meals. It sounds like a lot, but it's still such a huge effort that they're trying to make.
What's next? You're planning the next one in El Paso?
We're looking at March or April, and much, much bigger. A lot more families, better price point. Just a little more inclusive. And, yeah, sometimes it's herding cats a little bit. But I think everybody has learned to appreciate the structure of it, because it's gonna be a much better event. And everybody's just making that happen with that one motto: We'll figure it out. I've been figuring it out for 20 years, and now we're figuring it out together to help our community. It's beautiful.
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