James Beard’s ‘best Texas chef’ at El Naranjo in Austin debuts daughter as chef de cuisine

When Iliana de la Vega first told her parents that she wanted to study cooking instead of another career, they saw it as a generational setback in their family.

Now, the internationally recognized chef and James Beard Award winner has passed the baton to her eldest daughter, Ana Torrealba, who this month made her formal debut as chef de cuisine at El Naranjo, Austin’s lauded Mexican food restaurant.

“We’ve been working together for many years, while she studied away and came back to work at the restaurant on vacations,” De la Vega told The Dallas Morning News. “Her dad and I will retire in a few years, so now we’re teaching her everything we know.”

Read the full article HERE