Esteban Castillo’s page may well be the most colourful food account on the platform. The marketeer by day and after hours recipe developer describes himself as a “queer Chicano who lives for (insert artist’s palette, taco and dog emoji) and drag queens". His carefully styled photos (they also live on his ) set Mexican and Mexican fusion plates on flat, garish, often geometric backdrops to create high food drama: they’re polished and meticulous, the opposite of what many perceive Mexican cuisine to be.
And therein lies one of the core motivators for Chicano Eats: Castillo is raising questions about existing beliefs surrounding his native cuisine - he's challenging the public’s understanding of the complexities of Mexican food, one styled food photo at a time.
"I think that one of the biggest misconceptions about Mexican food is that we’re limited to tacos and burritos - that it is simply just street food," Castillo tells SBS, "but there are so many more dimensions, influences, flavours and pieces of history that are always overlooked."
Castillo's homemade mango con limón rolled in Tajín, a spicy Mexican-style mango,styled as bright, playful bunnies. Source: Esteban Castillo, Chicano Eats
The son of immigrants, Castillo, who today calls Santa Ana home, grew up struggling to grasp his identity and place in the world and through the blog, discovered he's not alone.
"It seems like most of us shared many of the same experiences and struggles with our bicultural identities growing up. We were always seen as either not Mexican enough or American enough, we never seemed to fit in."
Castillo also used the blog as a creative release where he could flex his artistic and cooking skills, share recipes, and explore his Mexican American identity through food.
Throughout his Insta account, Castillo, a self-taught cook, features the foods of his childhood (chopped fruit covered in lime juice and chilli; a traditional Mexican soup called sopita; and his childhood birthday favourite - gelatina de leche, or milk jello) styled and shot with an artist’s gaze (he's inspired by Swiss graphic design and a 20th century German design school).
Sopita, a Mexican style soup enjoyed by Esteban as a child, is given a playful, modern makeover. Source: Esteban Castillo, Chicano Eats
Colour, lines and symmetry collide to portray a new side to the homely, often rustically presented cuisine – all without compromising the recipe’s integrity.
His frustration with a lack of Mexican and Mexican American (or ‘Chicano’) voices online was another reason Castillo launched Chicano Eats.
Crispy af tacos de papa (potato tacos), remind Castillo of his grandma. Source: Esteban Castillo, Chicano Eats
"One of my missions is to take hold of this narrative that keeps being pushed, where content creators that are not Mexican keep (loosely) labelling their creations as “Mexican” or “authentic” when they are anything but.
"Many people in the US tend to think that a squeeze of lime (See Pioneer Woman’s ) or a few slices of avocado or jalapeños is enough to justify them being able to label it as “Mexican”, but it’s simply not how it works."
Have we got your attention and your tastebuds? It's Mexican week on 6pm, weeknights on SBS. Check out the for episode guides, cuisine lowdowns, recipes and more.
