There was also a standout smoked swordfish taco. And who can forget the time he served stingray, bathed in garlic butter? One week it might be seared wahoo topped with daikon radish, and another it could be crispy monkfish nuggets coupled with a charred tomato and serrano pepper sauce with garlic chips. Often, the specials listed boast a fish or seafood component - whatever strikes Valenzuela’s fancy that day at the market. Tacos featuring chile rellenos are among some of Rene Valenzuela's signature dishes. The chorizo’s soft, smoky heat was balanced by a squirt of lime and a heap of crunchy cabbage and diced tomatoes. Here, Valenzuela combined the smoky crumbled sausage made with green chiles and pumpkin seeds with rajas con queso - a roasted poblano pepper dish made with Mexican panela cheese. Unique (and delicious) is how I’d describe a special featured a few weekends ago, which highlighted homemade green chorizo inspired by the version served in the central Mexican city of Toluca. “This food is not for everyone, but it’s for the foodie who wants to experience something unique.” “I like to indulge in the evolution of culture, and food is one of the elements of culture,” Valenzuela said. Rooted heavily in his own upbringing, his cooking pulls from a wide swath of influences, inspired by colonial-era dishes, lesser-known indigenous recipes and modern Mexican street cuisine. Valenzuela likes to describe his cooking as “on the edge” of people’s comfort zones. Want more of our free, weekly newsletters in your inbox? Let’s get started. “One of the epiphanies I had is that we really have little time to do the work that we want to do, and the work that we are meant to do.” “Being at the hospital was also a great time for reflection,” Valenzuela said. Valenzuela spent six months in the hospital in an intensive burn center and another six months recuperating at home.īy the time he was ready to go back to work, most of what Valenzuela had made in the Taco Bus sale had gone toward his medical expenses, and what he had left wasn’t enough to open the kind of restaurant he had imagined. In 2018, a horrific accident caused by a gas explosion nearly killed the chef, and left him with severe burns. He began planning a new solo venture, what he then imagined would be a high-end Mexican steakhouse. Six years ago, Valenzuela left the company, selling his stake in the restaurant brand to another investor. One of the first Florida food trucks to draw national acclaim, he grew the bus-turned-restaurant in Seminole Heights into a widely recognizable Florida brand that at its peak was attracting national attention, including visits from celebrity chef Guy Fieri on his hit Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. You may remember Valenzuela as the original founder of Taco Bus in Tampa.
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