Chef Adan Medrano honors the plant-based cooking traditions of Texas

Adán Medrano is a chef, food writer and filmmaker. He's also a storyteller and a keeper of the ancestral knowledge and foodways of the Indigenous people of what we now call Texas. His 2021 documentary, Truly Texas Mexican , explored how food is an important aspect of culture and identity – beautifully illustrating how recipes and cooking tools are passed from one generation to the next. Medrano is a classically trained chef, and graduate of the Culinary Institute of America – and his work has always sought to highlight how Indigenous people in Texas have used food and cooking techniques that have been refined and passed down for centuries. Preserving and reaffirming those traditions is a way for Indigenous people in Texas to reclaim and redefine their identities in the face of constan