Nacho's Nachos: The Story Behind the World's Favorite Snack

Best Children’s Books of the Year, Bank Street College of Education Christopher Award, Books for Young Readers Best Books of 2020, Center for the Study of Multicultural Children’s Literature (CSMCL) Reading the West Book Award nominee, Reading the WestThe delicious true story of an inventive chef and the serendipitous events that led to the creation of the world’s favorite snack–nachos!Ignacio Anaya was born in Mexico in 1895, and like a lot of Ignacios, he was nicknamed Nacho. Young Nacho loved to eat and cook, and when he grew up, he found a job in a restaurant. Eventually he became head waiter at the Victory Club, a popular restaurant in Piedras Negras, Mexico, right across the Rio Grande river from Eagle Pass, Texas. One afternoon in 1940, during the Victory Club’s quiet hours between lunch and dinner, Mamie Finan, a regular customer from the US, walked in with three friends. They wanted a snack–something new, something different. Nacho rushed to the kitchen and improvised with what was on hand: corn tortillas, cheddar cheese, and jalapeño peppers. In that moment, Nacho’s Special, the dish that later became known simply as “nachos,” was born! Word of this delicious new snack spread quickly. Soon restaurants all over Mexico, the United States, and later the world, were serving nachos. Little did Nacho know that his name would one day be a household word around the globe!