Tortilla Chips - A History

On your travels while dining out you are likely to come across tortilla chips on most menus. Delicious served as a starter or as a compliment to your desired meal. Tortilla chips are the quintessential and often complimentary appetizer in Tex-Mex and Mexican restaurants throughout the world.

Tortilla chips are made from corn tortillas, cut into a triangular shape and fried or baked. Alternatively, they may be discs pressed out of corn masa then fried or baked. Corn tortillas are made of corn, vegetable oil, salt and water. While they are usually made of yellow corn, they can also made from white, blue or red corn. Tortillas are now selling at a much faster rate than potato chips, and have outsold hamburger and hot dog buns repeatedly due to their versatility. Aside from being used as Tortilla Chips, Tortillas have become a vital component of a variety of Mexican and Tex-Mex dishes such as; Burritos, Tacos and more.

Tortilla Chips are famously associated with Mexican food but actually originate from Los-Angeles in the late 1940’s.  Rebecca Webb Carranza introduced Tortilla Chips in the 1940’s. Born in Durango, Mexico; Rebecca later went on to co-own a Mexican deli and El Zarape Tortilla Factory in Los Angeles. It was from here in which she accidentally discovered the tortilla chip. Rebecca and her husband purchased an automated tortilla-manufacturing machine.

The machine used in her Tortilla factory would occasionally churn out misshapen tortillas. As these tortillas were due to go to waste; one day Rebecca decided to cut them into triangles and fry them. They were met with rave reviews when served to her family but little did she know how quickly the craze for tortilla chips would take off! They were so popular that Rebecca decided to sell them for a dime a bag at the El Zarape Tortilla Factory. By the 1960’s Tortilla Chips were El Zarape’s main business. Rebecca received the Golden Tortilla award for her contribution to the Mexican food industry.

Tortilla chips have become an essential and popular appetizer in Tex-mex and Mexican restaurants throughout the world. Their popularity increased in the late 1970’s when tortilla chips began to compete with Corn Chips. Tortilla chips are typically served with a variety of dips  such as; salsa, Chile con Queso or guacamole; however, they can be eaten alone with herbs and spices.

A very popular dish that utilizes tortilla chips is nachos, created in 1943 by Ignacio Anaya. He found himself in a sticky situation when he was hosting guests at his restaurant but had no food to serve him, without his Chef in-house he went into the kitchen and cut tortillas into triangles, fried them, added shredded cheese, quickly heated them, added sliced pickled jalapeños and served them. When asked about the name of the dish, he answered “Nacho’s especiales”. As word of the dish traveled, the apostrophe was lost, and Nachos “specials” became “special nachos”.