Emmanuel Chavez
Tatemó | Houston, TX
September 2025
Emmanuel Chavez grew up in Northside, Houston, the son of Tex-Mex restaurateurs. A dishwasher by the age of 13, the loud, chaotic kitchens colored the way he thought about Mexican food: beans, rice, and grease. But, they felt like home. By 18, he committed to cooking, landing a formative stage at River Oaks Country Club that gave him structure and discipline. For years, Chavez followed mentor chefs through kitchens, building his skill set before launching pop-ups across Houston. Instagram became his resume, and a string of sold-out dinners sharpened his understanding of food as both a craft and a business.
A gig in the Pacific Northwest brought Chavez to the Thompson Seattle, and eventually back to Houston, where a restaurant partnership during the pandemic fell through and pushed him to pivot. He started nixtamalizing maíz and selling tortillas fresh off the comal one day a week, calling the project Tatemó—Nahuatl for “to toast” or “to roast.” In 2021, he opened the restaurant with just 16 seats. Today, Tatemó’s tasting menu celebrates heirloom corn and indigenous techniques, while reimagining regional Mexican cooking, with dishes like encacahuatado wagyu with recado negro, caramelized shallots, and cured nopales on a cónico rojo tortilla.
Chavez’s vision for Tatemó extends well beyond his food. He hires migrant cooks with no prior kitchen experience, training them from the ground up. He supports non-profit work through PX Project, the Southern Smoke Foundation, and the Feed the Soul Foundation, and creates space for collaboration by opening his kitchen to fellow chefs and makers. At every step, Chavez has built community through food—giving others the opportunities he felt he wasn’t always afforded in the kitchen before leading one of his own.
