(Natasha Bhogal / Unplash)

Amazingly, some of the popular meals were created thanks to an accident, an oversight, looking for another result or just simply a stroke of luck. Some of them were invented to attract the elites or to assist some random foreign customers who stepped into your restaurant, when you ran off of supplies, and then ended up being popular on the daily menu for whole the world and in special and sports events, such as the Super Bowl every single year. 

Believed or not, this is how the well-known Nachos were created.

For those who don’t know or have been living under a rock for the last 80 years, the Nachos is an appetizer created in northern Mexico, which consists of triangular fried or toast pieces of corn tortilla (also known as “totopos”), covered with melted cheese and jalapeño peppers. By the lapse of time, they have added other ingredients such as guacamole, beans, chicken, pulled pork, brisket and among others.

According to the official history, the first appearance of Nachos was in 1943 in the Mexican border town of Piedras Negras, Coahuila. Ignacio Anaya, known as “Nacho”, worked as the head and kitchen manager at the popular restaurant Club Victoria, which was located near the Texan US-Mexico border, and where the US military base Fort Duncan was located.

One day, a group of women and wives of some military personnel, entered the restaurant where Mr. Nacho worked. These women ordered an appetizer to enjoy while they talked. Unfortunately, Nacho’s restaurant did not have the necessary ingredients to prepare his traditional menu, so he had to improvise with the few ingredients on hand in the kitchen. He took a bunch of tortillas cut into triangles and fried them, added some cheese and sliced jalapeño peppers, and put them in the oven. The unnamed appetizer and Mr. Nacho’s new experiment were ready to eat, and the women loved it, he was surprised. They asked what the name was. Nacho simply responded that it was Nacho’s Special. Over time, some other restaurants around the border quickly copied the recipe.

Nowadays as I mentioned before, Nachos can be prepared in a thousand ways, but the original recipe only included three basic ingredients: fried triangle-shaped tortillas, cheese and jalapeño. 

It wasn’t until 1950 (almost seven years later) that a woman named Carmen Rocha made them popular when she moved from Mexico to Los Angeles and took the recipe with her.

Unfortunately, when Ignacio Anaya’s son tried to patent the recipe it was too late since many restaurants had already modified the original recipe. Despite everything, Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya is considered the only original inventor of nachos. 

He passed away in 1975 and in his honor, a bronze plaque was erected in Piedras Negras. Later, International Nacho Day was declared on October 21st.