The enduring appeal of tacos
Hollywood hardman Danny Trejo swaps the big screen for Mexican feasts
Danny Trejo has spent his career playing machetewielding hardmen on screen, belying a gentler personality behind-the-scenes.
He talks about his childhood in Los Angeles with warmth – particularly the way food brought everyone together.
“You know what, it was my mum’s house. It didn’t matter what time we came home – food was like the peacemaker, you walked in and she fed everybody,” Trejo, 79, remembers.
“It calmed everybody down. My house was the place where we had all the family parties and all the family get-togethers. One time I had a party – it was high school – and my mum and dad stole the show because they could dance, do the swing and stuff.”
Trejo adds with his signature braying laugh that he managed to stuff “like 300 kids” into the alley at the back of their house – with everyone flocking there for a good time and, of course, good food.
Trejo’s early life of crime is well documented, resulting in various stints in prison, before he made his way into Hollywood in the 1980s. What started as bit parts and roles as an extra soon morphed into a fullblown career: playing Isador ‘Machete’ Cortez in Spy Kids and the Machete franchise, as well as appearing in films like Desperado, From Dusk Till Dawn and Con Air.
Off-screen, Trejo says he’s “always been health conscious” – particularly when working.
He recounts how appearing in low-budget films meant he always brought his own meals and snacks, because all that would be provided was fast food.
“I don’t eat processed food – I wanna cook my own hamburger!” he says.
“This producer called Ash [Shah] – who is now one of my business partners – he was the one that saw me eating my little tuna salad or chicken salad when everybody else was eating Mickey D’s. He was like, ‘Trejo – you eat good’.
“I was like, ‘I’m 70 years old, I better!’ And he said – ‘Why don’t you open a restaurant?’ Joking, I said: ‘Trejo’s Tacos’.”
What started as a joke soon turned into a full-blown business plan – Trejo said when he first saw the pitch for his own line of restaurants: “I opened it, and there were no killings or mayhem on the first page. Not my remit.”
But it obviously struck a chord – and in 2016, the first LA outpost was established and “killed it”, Trejo says. Now, he’s opening his first international joint – in London.
“Mexican food, tacos – they’re the easiest thing. It’s so funny, everybody has a special way they want their tacos – but they’re so simple and they’re so good. It’s really hard to make a bad taco. You have to really not like somebody to make a bad taco.”
Many of the recipes at Trejo’s Tacos were taken from his mother, but with a fundamental change.
Trejo’s Tacos will open at 299-301 Portobello Road from February 27.