Maria Flores, owner of El Taconazo food truck (Photo by Jay Paul)
Maria Flores has been cooking since she was a teen in Mexico. She learned from her mother and grandmothers, and the love of cooking stayed with her. Flores’ innate talent brought her to the United States, where she cooked traditional Mexican food in New Orleans and Houston before moving to Richmond in 1995. Now, you can find Flores cooking seven days a week aboard her food truck, El Taconazo, parked at 3227 Broad Rock Blvd. There, she puts her skill on full display through tacos, comforting soups and weekly rotating specials including poblano mole, which always draws a crowd.
Richmond magazine: Where are you from, and what brought you to Richmond?
Maria Flores: I was born in Mexico City, raised in San Luis Potosi and Monterrey. I started learning how to cook by watching my mother and my grandmothers. My passion for cooking started at the age of 14 in Monterrey. Then, at the age of 17, I was contracted to work in New Orleans, to come and cook for three years. After that, I moved to Houston in 1990, where I fell in love and had my first two beautiful children. We moved to Richmond in 1995 due to a recession of work in Houston.
RM: Tell us about your first food truck in Richmond.
Flores: Living here in Richmond, many opportunities came up. Also, my family became bigger, and I had another two children. I was one of the first ones in Richmond to open a food trailer business on Jefferson Davis Highway in front of the military base in 2000. We were at this location for about two years, and then we decided to expand and open a restaurant nearby on the same road towards the flea market. We moved to that location in 2007. Things were going very well while we had our business until [my husband and I] decided to part ways with a divorce, which forced us to close our restaurant.
RM: What was your experience working for other restaurateurs around Richmond?
Flores: After sadly closing our business, my journey started in the restaurant industry. I started at Tio Pablo as the head cook when they opened. I was there for about three to four years, then headed to Rancho T. I later started working a second job with Commercial Taphouse. After being with Taphouse since 2018, they closed in 2022. I then saw the opportunity to open my business again. I said to myself, “It’s time to reopen my business back up after so long. I need to continue to show the world the passion I have for food and different flavors.”
RM: Can you tell us about the menu at El Taconazo?
Flores: We have a variety of dishes from tacos to hot, delicious soups like menudo on Sundays, and posole. We have burritos, quesadillas, sopes, huaraches. One of our most popular dishes are the tacos — de lengua, carne asada, pastor with a delicious touch of pineapple. My favorite dish is a mole poblano special we do every now and then.
RM: What motivates you to keep doing this work?
Flores: I do it with passion. I always give my 100% to make sure my customers are happy and come back and visit us. My business may be small, but what makes it big is my happy customers returning.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
