About Rico Torres and Diego Galicia
Rico Torres and Diego Galicia are the co-founders and co-owners of Mixtli in San Antonio, Texas, a rotating prix fixe restaurant that tours the culinary regions of Mexico, changing its menu each season to explore a different Mexican state or region. Torres is an El Paso native and self-taught chef who moved to San Antonio and opened Mixtli in 2013. Galicia brings deep culinary technique and a shared commitment to rigorous research into the cultural and historical context of each region they explore. Together they were named Food and Wine Best New Chefs in 2017, received multiple James Beard Award nominations, and earned a Michelin star and the Michelin Service Award in the inaugural 2024 Texas Michelin Guide. Mixtli was also named a James Beard Outstanding Hospitality finalist in 2024. The restaurant has become one of the most distinctive fine dining concepts in Texas through its commitment to the depth and diversity of Mexican gastronomy.
Episode Overview
André Natera sits down with Rico Torres and Diego Galicia to talk about what it has taken to build Mixtli into one of the most respected fine dining concepts in Texas and what the Michelin star means for a restaurant built around a cuisine that the fine dining establishment has historically undervalued. They discuss the failures and pivots that shaped Mixtli into what it is today, the research-driven process behind each rotating menu, and what it takes to maintain the integrity of a concept that is fundamentally about honoring rather than reinventing.
They cover the business realities of running a rotating tasting menu concept without a permanent menu to fall back on, what the arrival of the Michelin Guide in Texas means for Mexican and regional American cuisine more broadly, and how Torres and Galicia think about the responsibility that comes with representing a culinary tradition as complex and historically rich as Mexico’s.
Topics covered in this episode:
- Building Mixtli as a rotating regional Mexican prix fixe concept and what the model demands operationally
- The research process behind each seasonal menu and how Torres and Galicia explore each region of Mexico
- Restaurant failures and pivots along the way and what they learned from each setback
- Earning a Michelin star and the Michelin Service Award in the inaugural Texas Michelin Guide
- Food and Wine Best New Chefs 2017 and multiple James Beard nominations
- What Michelin recognition means for Mexican fine dining and regional American cuisine
- The responsibility of representing Mexican culinary heritage at a serious level in American fine dining
Guest
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