My wife and I attended his wedding two years later to playwright Emilie Coulson Salgado, who serves as Taco María’s general manager. I was there on opening night, and he helped to cater my wedding in 2014. Two years later, Salgado opened a brick-and-mortar in Costa Mesa and ditched his food truck menu for something even better: a wholesale interrogation of what Mexican food and a Mexican chef could be. His Taco María quickly made its presence known in Orange County’s luxe lonchera scene with sumptuous takes on burritos, tacos, and aguas frescas. Read more: Star-winning Taco María is closing this Saturday. I immediately burst out laughing and thought “ no se dejà” - Salgado doesn’t back down. I tweeted a snide remark at Taco María’s account that demanded he define what “Chicano cuisine” was. Who the hell was this newcomer with seemingly no knowledge of Orange County dining to think he could succeed in a region where people still expected their Mexican grub to come on combo plates, ordered in a drive-thru, wrapped around a tortilla, or with views of the Pacific? Taco María's Twitter account stated the truck was named after the matriarchs in Salgado's family and would focus on “Chicano cuisine.” As food editor for OC Weekly at the time, I found Salgado’s proclamation preposterous. When Carlos Salgado returned to his native Orange County from the Bay Area to open a food truck named Taco María, the computer-programmer-turned-pastry-chef immediately gave the world a sense of who he would be: visionary, unapologetically Mexican, and with a wicked sense of humor. Carlos Salgado opened Taco María in Costa Mesa in 2013, propelling an exploration of what Mexican food and a Mexican chef could be.
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