"As it's told, the dish of nachos was first thrown together back in the 1940s by a man named Ignacio Anaya García for a troupe of military wives who were famished after a day of shopping. According to many sources, García was actually the maître d' of the Club Victoria, but the chef was nowhere to be found when the ladies arrived."
"Instead, he set about making something from what he could find in the kitchen. He turned leftover tortillas into chips (also known as totopos), topped them with cheese and sliced jalapeños, and tossed the platter in the oven to melt the cheese before presenting them to the table."
"The unexpected etymology of the word "nacho" adds another layer to this story. The dish that García served those ladies he called "Nacho's Especiales," a dish named not after any other food from which he might have drawn inspiration, but rather after himself. As it turns out, "Nacho" is a traditional nickname for folks named "Ignacio.""
Nachos originated in Piedras Negras, Mexico, a border town across from Eagle Pass, Texas, in the 1940s. Ignacio Anaya García, a maître d' at Club Victoria, improvised the dish when a group of military wives arrived hungry and the chef was absent. Using available kitchen ingredients, he transformed leftover tortillas into chips, topped them with melted cheese and sliced jalapeños, then baked them. The dish proved so popular it spread throughout Mexican restaurants in the United States and eventually worldwide. The name "nacho" derives from García's nickname for Ignacio, making the dish literally named after its creator.
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