{"id":63290,"date":"2024-05-03T00:01:14","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T06:01:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=63290"},"modified":"2026-04-05T20:33:50","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T02:33:50","slug":"el-chile-toreado-santa-fe-new-mexico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=63290","title":{"rendered":"El Chile Toreado – Santa Fe, New Mexico"},"content":{"rendered":"
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El Chile Toreado, Owned and Operated by a James Beard “Best Chef – Southwest” Award Nominee for 2023<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Until 2008, the notion of gourmet culinary offerings being proffered by a mobile conveyance was unheard of.\u00a0 Prior to then, food trucks were (often rightfully so) known as “roach coaches<\/em>” or even worse “barf buggies<\/em>.”\u00a0 Roach coaches were an eyesore, a medium of last resort usually parked at construction sites, manufacturing plants, public parks or basic military training bases where captive trainees had no alternative.\u00a0 Roach coaches were a pure convenience with no pretense to gourmet (or even good) cuisine.\u00a0 Most of them hawked simple fare such as hot dogs and tacos as well as potato chips, cigarettes, candy and chewing gum.<\/p>\n

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Does this look like a toreado (Mexican blistered pepper)?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

During the era of “convenience stores on wheels,” food trucks weren\u2019t worried about building a brand.\u00a0 Nor were they concerned with repeat business or customer loyalty. There was no such thing as social media at the time and there were no Yelp reviews. These unsightly vehicles (many with actual roaches in tow) were in business to serve a location for a short time period. After at construction job ended at one site, for example,\u00a0 they would simply move onto the next profitable location and the process would continue.\u00a0 These “convenience stores on wheels” served a purpose, but during the first decade of the twenty-first century they began being supplanted by a new generation of mobile food kitchens owned and operated by social media savvy mavens.<\/p>\n

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In 2022, El Chile Toreado Was a Semi-Finalist for the James Beard Foundation’s “Best Chef – Southwest”<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Among the first to marry upscale restaurant quality cuisine with a social media presence was Chef Roy Choi who in 2008 launched Kogi BBQ <\/a><\/strong>in Los Angeles.\u00a0 Chef Choi is considered “one of the architects of the modern food truck movement.”\u00a0 The success of Kogi signaled the advent of new and improved ways to make custom food trucks better. Those included eye-catching graphics, state of the art sound systems, five-star quality cooking and refrigeration equipment inside.\u00a0 Since 2008, the food truck phenomena has grown increasingly popular.\u00a0 Professor Daphne Demetry posited that the number of food trucks can be explained by the \u201cnew authenticity economy<\/strong><\/a>,\u201d a shift toward selling products and services that are unique, local and eclectic.<\/p>\n

One of the most telling aspects of the food truck movement is the success food truck operators have had in being nominated for and even winning James Beard Awards.\u00a0 And no, the James Beard Foundation didn’t have to create a category specifically for food trucks.\u00a0 Food truck operators are proving every day that they have the chops to be considered for and take home the culinary world’s equivalent of an Academy Award.\u00a0 That’s the case even in New Mexico where in 2023, two of the five semi-finalists for the James Beard “Best Chef-Southwest” Award were food truck chefs: Basit Gauba of\u00a0 Tikka Spice<\/strong><\/a> (which earned Edible Magazine’s Local Hero Food Truck Award for 2022); and Berenice and Luis Medina of Santa Fe’s El Chile Toreado.<\/p>\n

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Top: Two Al Pastor Tacos; Bottom: Two Carne Asada Tacos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

El Chile Toreado is no Johnny-come-lately, launching as a food cart in 2005, three years before Roi Choi help architect the gourmet food truck revolution.\u00a0 In nearly two decades of serving the City Different, El Chile Toreado has greatly endeared itself to the dining public, earning accolades from the local press and kudos from travelers writing reviews in Yelp and other national platforms.\u00a0 Patriarch Luis and daughter Berenice (who attended Le Cordon Bleu in Hollywood) Medina are the James Beard Award nominees, but the entire family is involved in day-to-day operations.\u00a0 In 2019, El Chile Toreado relocated from its longtime location on Cordova Road to Early Street just south of Cerillos.\u00a0 In 2022, a second location was launched, this one on Siler Road.<\/p>\n

Our inaugural visit was on a uniquely New Mexico March day.\u00a0 I stood in line to place our order as hard-and-fast graupel pelted me and other intrepid and hungry diners.\u00a0 My warm-ups were covered in something resembling oversized dandruff.\u00a0 Thankfully the staff was quick to fill tacos and roll burritos so our wait was only about ten minutes.\u00a0 While waiting, I spoke with several fellow pilgrims who used such adjectives as “best in Santa Fe<\/em>” to describe the fare.\u00a0 One Santa Fe couple didn’t even know El Chile Toreado had been nominated for a James Beard award.\u00a0 They weren’t surprised when I told them.\u00a0 For another patient patron, the bigger surprise was that it had taken me so long to visit.<\/p>\n

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Al Pastor Burrito, the Best I’ve Ever Had<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

24 March 2023<\/strong>: My Kim asked me to get her one of each carne asada taco and al pastor taco.\u00a0 Figuring she might not share much of her bounty, I ordered two of each.\u00a0 That was one of the best moves since the Dallas Cowboys drafted CeeDee Lamb.\u00a0 The menu explains that al pastor<\/strong><\/em>(“marinated pork in adobo sauce with pineapple and onions) is a heightened version of adobada, the pineapple make it the perfect combination of sweet, salty and spicy.”\u00a0 We’ve had a lot of al pastor over the years and this one ranked among the very best.\u00a0 The balance of flavors between the achiote-based adobo sauce, grilled onions and pineapple made each bite a joy.\u00a0 Nestled between two perfectly prepared soft, warm corn tortillas, those ingredients just sang.\u00a0 The two tortillas stacked together somehow make for a better bite than if the taco was made with a single, thicker corn tortilla.\u00a0 The carne asada<\/strong><\/em>taco, maybe the quintessential Mexican street taco, was nearly as impressive as the al pastor.\u00a0 In part because of the graupel’s fury, I didn’t visit the condiment bar for taco toppings, but asked for extra salsa.\u00a0 Two salsas are provided.\u00a0 A green salsa has enough piquancy to melt any graupel that tries to fall in its proximity.\u00a0 Ditto for the red salsa.<\/p>\n

24 March 2023<\/strong>: While diversity is normally my modus operandi when ordering at a restaurant, the al pastor burrito<\/strong><\/em>came standard with beans and rice.\u00a0 I’d never before had al pastor with beans and rice.\u00a0 As a lifelong connoisseur of New Mexico’s “other” official state vegetable (the humble frijole) I can never turn down a bowl of beans or the equivalent thereof stuffed into a tortilla.\u00a0 Rice, I can take or leave, but in combination with the beans, El Chile Toreado’s rice was just perfect.\u00a0 The burrito was roughly the size of a small log of firewood, making me grateful I let Kim have all four tacos (and as predicted, gave me only a bite of each).\u00a0 The burrito did fall apart, but a well-positioned paper plate made sure contents weren’t messily deposited on my warm-ups.\u00a0 As with the tacos, the burrito was terrific.<\/p>\n

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Luis Burrito<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

3 May 2024<\/strong>:\u00a0 It’s not very often my Kim and I make it to Santa Fe for breakfast, but one merry, merry month of May day El Chile Toreado’s\u00a0 breakfast beckoned us .\u00a0 Breakfast is served every morning until 11AM. Burritos and tacos are featured fare just as they should be on every New Mexican breakfast table.\u00a0\u00a0 Both burritos and tacos are constructed with two eggs, green chile, Monterey jack cheese and the meat (pork bacon, pork sausage, Polish sausage and the “Luis Mix<\/strong><\/em>” (chorizo, bacon and Polish sausage).\u00a0 The Luis is named for the family patriarch.\u00a0 Polish off one of these behemoth babies and you won’t need to eat for the rest of the day.\u00a0 The porcine trio is superb!\u00a0 It may or may not surprise you to read that Polish sausage is a very popular breakfast item in Northern New Mexico.\u00a0 It’s not quite as popular as fried baloney, but it’s close.\u00a0 Despite three pork-based proteins, this is not a one-note breakfast burrito.\u00a0 It’s the type of deliciousness all New Mexicans should wake up to.<\/p>\n

3 May 2024<\/strong>:\u00a0 Just how much can one taco hold?\u00a0 Can the tortilla possibly maintain its integrity with everything inside it?\u00a0 These questions and others will likely come up should you order the Mexican Veggie taco <\/b><\/em>(pico de gallo, pinto beans, potatoes, New Mexico Hatch green chile, Monterey jack cheese).\u00a0\u00a0 Call veggie tacos the antithesis of the aforementioned Luis burrito if you will, but you’ll also call them absolutely delicious.\u00a0 This is THE dish that might push you over the edge if you’re teetering between continuing a life of debauched carnivorousness or vegetarianism.\u00a0 It’s so good even the most avowed meat-eater will enjoy it<\/p>\n

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Vegetarian Tacos<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

El Chile Toreado’s website explains “El Chile Toreado may mean \u201cThe Fighting Chiles\u201d, using the Spanish word for \u201cbullfighting\u201d to liken this iconic Santa Fe food truck\u2019s signature ultra-spicy jalape\u00f1os to the fiery, red-hot heat of a charging bull, but its story is one of passion, perseverance, hard work, tradition, good food, and most importantly, family<\/em>.”\u00a0 To some it may seem this little food truck is the overmatched bullfighter going up against snorting bovines in the competition known as James Beard, but don’t discount the passion perseverance and cooking of the Medina family.<\/p>\n

El Chile Toreado<\/strong>
\n807 Early Street
\nSanta Fe, New Mexico<\/strong>
\n(505) 500-0033
\nWebsite<\/strong><\/a> | Facebook Page<\/strong><\/a>
\nLATEST VISIT<\/strong>: 3 May 2024
\n1st VISIT<\/strong>: 24 March 2023
\n# OF VISITS<\/strong>: 2
\nRATING<\/strong>: Excellent<\/strong><\/span>\u00a0\u2013 High quality dining experience; very good to excellent food, attentive service, and a well-maintained atmosphere; worth a detour.
\nCOST<\/strong>: $$
\nBEST BET<\/strong>: Carne Asada Tacos, El Pastor Tacos, El Pastor Burrito, Luis Burrito, Mexican Veggie Tacos
\nREVIEW #1325<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until 2008, the notion of gourmet culinary offerings being proffered by a mobile conveyance was unheard of.\u00a0 Prior to then, food trucks were (often rightfully so) known as “roach coaches” or even worse “barf buggies.”\u00a0 Roach coaches were an eyesore, a medium of last resort usually parked at construction sites, manufacturing plants, public parks or basic military training bases where captive trainees had no alternative.\u00a0 Roach coaches were a pure convenience with no pretense to gourmet (or even good) cuisine.\u00a0 Most of them hawked simple fare such as hot dogs and tacos as well as potato chips, cigarettes, candy and chewing gum. During the era of “convenience stores on wheels,” food trucks weren\u2019t worried about building a brand.\u00a0 Nor were…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66698,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3626,703,731,2836,57,141,563,142,727],"tags":[2833,2834,896,2830,2831,831,2832,2835,991,2167,857],"class_list":["post-63290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-james-beard-best-chef-southwest-semifinalist-2023","category-dog-friendly","category-food-truck","category-james-beard-award-best-chef-restaurants","category-mexican","category-new-mexico","category-rating-excellent","category-santa-fe","category-tacos","tag-al-pastor-tacos","tag-berenice-medina","tag-burritos","tag-chile-toreado","tag-early-street","tag-food-truck","tag-james-beard-award-nominee-best-chef-southwest","tag-luis-medina","tag-quesadillas","tag-santa-fe","tag-tacos"],"yoast_head":"\nEl Chile Toreado - Santa Fe, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nmgastronome.com\/?p=63290\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"El Chile Toreado - Santa Fe, New Mexico - Gil's Thrilling (And Filling) Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Until 2008, the notion of gourmet culinary offerings being proffered by a mobile conveyance was unheard of.\u00a0 Prior to then, food trucks were (often rightfully so) known as “roach coaches” or even worse “barf buggies.”\u00a0 Roach coaches were an eyesore, a medium of last resort usually parked at construction sites, manufacturing plants, public parks or basic military training bases where captive trainees had no alternative.\u00a0 Roach coaches were a pure convenience with no pretense to gourmet (or even good) cuisine.\u00a0 Most of them hawked simple fare such as hot dogs and tacos as well as potato chips, cigarettes, candy and chewing gum. 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