Austin, TX
This Austin Chef Moved From Oaxaca, but Oaxaca Never Left Her
When Austin chef Iliana de la Vega was growing up in Mexico City in the 1960s and ’70s, she and her family often traveled into Oaxaca on a long, narrow, and twisty road. “It would take 10, 12 hours to get there on this road that was all curves,” the chef recalls about those trips to visit her extended family. These journeys down a dangerous road to visit her extended family in Oaxaca shaped her life for decades to come as she made her way to Texas, where in 2012 she opened one of the premier Mexican restaurants in the country, El Naranjo, to showcase the heritage flavors of her ancestral homeland.
In Austin the fall of 2023 fall, de la Vega’s business went through many changes as she hands the reins of her restaurant to her daughter, Ana Torrealba, and expands her culinary tourism company into new Mexican cities. Throughout this, Oaxaca continues to drive de la Vega’s culinary inspiration. When she brings back groups of people to the same Oaxacan markets her great-grandmothers would have shopped, it’s full circle.
Oaxaca was considered a far-off place in the 1960s and ’70s, even to her friends in Mexico City, as it was cut off from the rest of the country by mountains and rivers. It wasn’t until 1994 that the Mexican government built a highway that connected Oaxaca, “rich in culture, poor in economy,” she says, to the rest of the country — and eventually the world.
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In the Mexican tradition, culinary know-how is passed down through the maternal line. During de la Vega’s family trips to Oaxaca, she’d spend time with her grandmother, Justa, and her dozens of cousins and relatives. For her, it was where life revolved around food. Her grandmother had 12 children, and only three girls. Of those, de la Vega’s mother was the only one to have children, so the chef was perhaps destined to be the keeper of her family’s cooking knowledge.
After she graduated from high school in Mexico City, de la Vega tried six different majors in college, including literature, communication, pedagogy, and tourism management, but never graduated. “I had very good grades, but I got bored at school and I just wanted to cook,” she says. To her mother’s initial disappointment, she started selling baked goods and cookies while teaching small cooking classes that people found out about through word-of-mouth. “My mother was a chemist, and for her, cooking was a step back,” she says. “But I couldn’t resist it. I was just teaching them what I knew.”
After meeting Ernesto during high school, getting married, and having their two daughters, the family eventually moved to the city that shaped her culinary path. They opened the original El Naranjo restaurant — named after the Spanish word for “orange tree” — in Oaxaca City in 1997. Political unrest in the early 2000s forced the couple to close the business and move to the U.S. She landed in San Antonio at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA), where she taught Latin American foodways for five years. In 2012, the couple moved to Austin to reopen El Naranjo.
During de la Vega’s time at the CIA, she started getting requests from clients to take them on private culinary trips to Oaxaca. Eventually, she decided to start a side business to fill that niche called Mexican Culinary Traditions, which now operates more than a dozen culinary trips a year to four destinations in Mexico. During these weeklong trips, she teaches cooking classes and hosts walking tours exploring aspects of the culinary culture. Her daughter, Isabel Torrealba, an anthropologist and journalist, teaches attendees about the history, architecture, and culture of the destinations. The trips originally focused on Oaxaca and, fueled by her desire to showcase the diversity of Mexican cuisine, expanded to Morelia in 2021 and Mérida earlier in 2023.
De la Vega spends a lot of time writing recipes for her consulting clients — such as Stanford and the University of Massachusetts, which hire her to reboot campus dining halls — but draws inspiration from what’s in season during the trips. “We go to the market and we look around and see what is fresh,” she says. “I don’t even know what I am cooking that day until we go to the market.” Her approach reflects the Mexican approach to cooking, she says. “This is the way we cook in Mexico. It’s ‘What do I have and what can I do with what I have?’”
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Many of her tour guests have never cooked without a recipe and often stress if they don’t have all the ingredients, but de la Vega relishes the opportunity to experiment outside of her restaurant. “I think that is more stressful than to go with the flow,” she says.
Through these trips, de la Vega has met hundreds of people from all over the world — India, Singapore, England, Spain — as well as Mexican tourists and Mexican Americans exploring their own country or heritage. “Some people will say, ‘Oh, my mom used to do that,’” she says as they point to a technique or way of serving a dish. “In a way, we open the door for them, so they feel they are taken care of.”
El Naranjo has transformed in Austin too, starting off as a food truck in 2012, growing into a physical restaurant on Rainey Street, and then relocating onto South Lamar. Then there was the pandemic and what de la Vega considers one of the biggest moments of her career with both pride and humility: her James Beard Award win in the first-ever Best Chef: Texas category in 2022, a feat for an Austin restaurant that focuses on interior Mexican food.
The medal is the kind of nod that most chefs only dream of but wasn’t one that kept her up at night. “I have never been a prize-seeker, but it felt good,” she says, “because you work hard and are trying to do something that makes a difference, so to get recognition makes me feel proud, but it didn’t change much in my daily life.”
After the award, she saw new faces in the restaurant and new interest in her culinary trips, but in many ways, she still feels like she is in survival mode with increased competition from new restaurants and diners’ hesitant to spend money due to economic uncertainties, not to mention rising food costs. “The pandemic was so, so hard,” she says. “We had just moved into the new location when COVID hit after seven years on Rainey. It’s a big step to still be here and be able to count on the people who still work with us.”
With her James Beard recognition, de la Vega is shifting from one chapter to the next. Earlier in 2023, her 35-year-old daughter officially took over the day-to-day management of the staff and the culinary operations at El Naranjo as chef de cuisine, giving de la Vega time to focus on her tours and consulting projects. De la Vega is now traveling more than ever, with 14 culinary trips a year scheduled.
Much like her mother, Ana Torrealba grew up surrounded by food, spending time at the family’s restaurants in Oaxaca and Austin. She studied baking and pastry at the CIA in Hyde Park before working at restaurants in New York and studying food engineering in Mexico City.
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De la Vega didn’t dissuade her daughter from getting into the food world like her own mother did, “but I did tell her that it was a hard life,” she says. When Torrealba moved to Austin, she worked nights at Central Market’s bakery, and still made the decision that, even with the long hours, she wanted her hands covered in flour and masa, just like her mom.
De la Vega’s journey from Mexico City to Oaxaca to Texas while raising her daughters and building a community around one of the most lauded restaurants in the city, has been satisfying, but she’s not finished yet. The chef still does extensive consulting work. She also speaks on panels about women and diversity in the culinary industry, and is constantly researching to improve and expand her culinary trips. She also wants to take some time for herself. “My main goal now is to see my girls doing well. I’d like to retire and go back and forth between Oaxaca and here and travel with my husband.”
But semi-retirement won’t look like resting on her laurels.
“I don’t know how to sit still,” she says, noting that she has over 10 culinary trips scheduled already, many of which are already sold out.
It’s a lot easier to get to Oaxaca than it used to be, but in some ways, it’s harder to remember what it was like before it became one of the top tourism destinations in Mexico. But that’s the Oaxaca she tries to remember when she’s on the road, teaching chefs and tour guests about her culinary heritage. It’s a legacy she’s building one trip at a time.
AUSTIN, Texas (KXAN) – The City of Austin is considering replacing the Barton Springs Bridge, citing concerns about the structure’s condition and long-term safety. However, preservation advocates are urging city leaders to fully explore alternatives before moving forward.
This week, Preservation Texas named Barton Springs Bridge one of the most endangered places for 2026.
“It’s a major road and a lot of stuff happening around here all the time, you know, public safety access, all these things are huge concerns, too. But we think that the historic nature of the bridge is really important,” said Meghan Namour, Policy and Outreach Planner at Preservation Austin.
According to city officials, the 100-year-old bridge has deteriorated over time, with cracking concrete, missing sections of concrete and other issues that have raised concerns about its future.
In 2024, the city received a $32 million bridge improvement grant from the Federal Highway Administration to help fund the project.
For longtime Austin resident Bethani Ragland, the bridge represents a piece of the city’s history.
“I’ve been here so long, since my childhood,” said Bethani Ragland, Austin resident.
She said she was disappointed to learn the bridge could eventually be replaced.
“It was built well because I haven’t noticed anything, no cracking no nothing. There’s no reason to take the bridge down. It’s just more construction in Austin,” said Ragland.
City of Austin officials say the project must still go through the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, review process.
In a statement to KXAN, the city said:
“The Barton Springs Bridge project is currently at the 90% design milestone. The project received a $32M bridge improvement program grant from the Federal Highway Administration, and will go through a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) review and approval process which includes assessment of environmental assets and review of bridge alternatives. The NEPA document will review and evaluate the historic, environmental and archeological significance of the bridge. There will be an analysis of both replacement and rehabilitation alternatives included. The NEPA process is expected to be completed in 2027.”
Preservation advocates say they hope that process includes meaningful consideration of ways to preserve the bridge.
“In our own city, we have examples of historic bridges that have been repurposed for new or different uses. There’s the Pfluger Pedestrian and Bike Bridge that was added next to the Lamar Bridge. Not every case is the same but we would love for those options to at least be meaningfully considered,” said Namour.
The road to Omaha starts now for the No. 6 national seed Texas Longhorns. For the 39th time in the program’s storied history, the Longhorns will host the NCAA Regional with the opportunity to host a super regional if they can get out of a talent grouping.
This year’s Austin Regional is paired up with the Eugene Regional, hosted by the No. 11 Oregon Ducks. Last season, Texas had its best season since 2010 in its first year in the Southeastern Conference, but everything came crashing down when the Longhorns lost twice to the UTSA Roadrunners.
While last year’s result served as a lesson for the returners, most of the 2026 squad was either at other places or in high school, marking a new beginning for many.
“It’s always the most fun time of year, and certainly when you need the opportunity to play at home,” head coach Jim Schlossnagle said. “Welcome to Holy Cross, Tarleton State, and UCSB. Looking forward to great three or four days of baseball.”
Here are some keys for the Longhorns to make it out of the regional round of the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2023.
1 – Aiden Robbins Must Produce
At one point in the season, Texas junior outfielder Aiden Robbins was one of the most dangerous hitters in the nation. For a hitter who has never batted under .300 dating back to high school, he maintained his production in a much more competitive SEC slate.
But in the final couple of games in the season, Robbins has not been the same imposing bat that won him the SEC Newcomer of the Year honors. Dating back to the Tennessee series, Robbins has gone 4-for-21 at the plate while striking out nine times.
The Longhorns’ top-of-the-order bat is also riding a three-game hitless streak heading into postseason play.
Robbins is battling back from a stomach bug that took him out early in the second game of the Missouri series and the entirety of the regular season finale.
If Texas wants to get out of its regional, its best bat for the entirety of the season must get back to his original form. A possible tuneup game against Holy Cross may be the switch to get him back. If not, he’ll have to move down in the order to allow catcher Carson Tinney and SEC Freshman of the Year, Anthony Pack Jr., to be the brunt of the offensive load.
2 – Texas Can’t Get Into The Loser’s Bracket
Playing two games in one day is almost a death sentence for any team with hopes of making it out of the regional.
Texas learned this the hard way: after beating Houston Christian in the first game of last season’s regional, the Longhorns fell in the second game to UTSA, forcing them to battle in the losers’ bracket with Kansas State.
Despite beating Kansas State on Sunday, Texas only had around an hour’s break before the regional final game, and a rematch with UTSA, ultimately in the regional defining loss.
“The biggest thing we learned is that everything up to this point just doesn’t, doesn’t matter. It’s all out the window – it’s a new season,” Luke Harrison said. “We’ve got to find a way to get better as a team and play better than we have all year.”
Texas is rolling out Harrison for game one against Holy Cross, saving Dylan Volantis for a big-time game on Saturday for either a rematch with Tarleton State or against a talented UC-Santa Brarba team.
While Texas does have the arms to win out of the losers’ bracket, it’s a task that will cause more pressure on the entire team.
3 – Starters and Bullpen Must Play Their A-Game
It has been well documented that the bullpen has seen its fair share of woes this season, and one of the keys to beating Texas is to retire the starter early to force them to tap into the bullpen early.
The starting trio of Harrison, Dylan Volantis and Ruger Riojas must eat up as many innings as possible, something they’ve done for the most part the entire season. Then it’s up to the bullpen to not allow the opposition to gain momentum down the stretch.
For Schlossnagle, there will not be much experimentation in the regional, and the arms that have proven their worth will get the nod.
“The guys who have pitched the best all season, they’re going to pitch the most,” Schlossnagle said. “If that means a reliever who maybe hasn’t pitched before the seventh inning has to come in a different part of the game, that’s what’s going to happen.”
While the SEC Tournament was disappointing on the hitting front, Texas was able to get looks from multiple pitchers in different parts of the game. Freshman pitchers, Sam Cozart and Brett Crossland, will be primary options while Thomas Burns and Haiden Leffew cannot struggle in the late-inning situations
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The Texas Education Agency rejected a partnership proposed by the Austin Independent School District to buy the district more time to avoid a state takeover. In a letter sent to Superintendent Matias Segura on Thursday, the TEA denied the district’s request to hand over three middle schools to an outside provider to run them under what is known as an 1882 agreement.
In March, the district proposed partnering with the Texas Council for International Studies to run Burnet, Dobie and Webb middle schools as charter schools. The three campuses have received four consecutive unacceptable grades from the state’s accountability system. A fifth failing grade could trigger a total takeover of the entire district, with the TEA replacing the school board with a board of managers.
The letter sent to Segura explains the operating partner must comply with three criteria: have at least three years of experience before taking over a campus; have managed multiple campuses for multiple years; and have significantly improved the academic performance of campuses. The TEA says TCIS only meets two of those three criteria, and it “does not qualify as an operating partner with the capacity necessary to successfully turn around campuses.”
The TEA argues TCIS has failed to prove a track record of improving campuses’ academic performance. TCIS has managed 16 campuses in San Antonio ISD, Longview ISD and Edgewood ISD. However, only five out of those campuses had a D or an F rating before being operated by the non-profit.
AISD Superintendent Segura said in a written statement to families on Thursday evening that the district remains confident that TCIS is capable of lifting student outcomes.
“While this response is disappointing, I want to assure you that this is not the end of the process,” Segura said in the statement. “TEA has explicitly invited Austin ISD to submit additional information to support and reinforce our application, and we fully intend to do so.”
If approved, the two-year 1882 agreement would allow the district to pause the accountability clock for these three schools. AISD and TCIS can still continue with the partnership, but if they choose to, the TEA said, Burnet, Dobie and Webb would not get the benefits of the 1882 agreement, including state funding and reprieve from state ratings.
When the partnership was approved during a board meeting in March, Segura said district officials were confident the TEA would approve it because they had talked with TCIS about expectations and had visited their schools. Segura said the district had also received feedback from the TEA about the plan and had adjusted the partnership accordingly.
“When we look at the timeline, we could see on May or June before we get a final approval. But we are not shy about asking questions and making adjustments where appropriate,” he said. “But if the agency does not accept after all of that we would appreciate the opportunity to make the adjustment, which is what we have seen them do.”
KUT reached out to the TEA to ask about when a final decision must be made, and has not heard back.
Ratings for the 2025-2026 school year have not yet been released. But in his message to parents Thursday, Segura said the district is seeing “promising accelerated student growth” across the district. He said district officials will continue advocating for a partnership.
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