Chef-Owner, El Naranjo; Austin, TX

Iliana de la Vega is chef-owner of Austin’s El Naranjo, as well as an educator, culinary consultant, and expert in Mexican gastronomy. Born in Mexico, she has dedicated her professional life to the study and dissemination of the country's foodways, including working with different communities of rare chiles indigenous to Oaxaca. From 2007 to 2012, Chef de la Vega served as the Mexican cuisines specialist for The Culinary Institute of America, where she created and launched the Latin Cuisines Certificate Program. Chef de la Vega won worldwide acclaim for her interpretation of local cuisine at her restaurant and cooking school, El Naranjo, in Oaxaca, Mexico from 1997 to 2006, and then in 2012, she brought that concept to Austin, Texas.  In 2014 the Mexican government awarded Chef de la Vega the prestigious Ohtli award in recognition of her work with Mexican gastronomy and the Hispanic population. Chef de la Vega is currently a consultant for Stanford University, is the Texas delegate for the Conservatorio de la Cultura Gastronómica Mexicana, and the first James Beard Award winner for Best Chef Texas in 2022. @ilianadelavega