Iliana de la Vega is an award-winning Mexican-born chef and owner of El Naranjo, a traditional Mexican restaurant in the heart of Austin, Texas. Chef de la Vega and her husband Ernesto Torrealba first opened El Naranjo as a restaurant and cooking school in 1997  in Oaxaca, Mexico; the restaurant received worldwide acclaim and was lauded as “the soul of Mexico” on the cover of Bon Appetit and at The New York Times Dinning Section, among other notable publications.

In 2006, Chef de la Vega and her family were forced to close the restaurant and relocate to Texas due to political unrest in their community, that collapsed the local economy They eventually reopened their restaurant in May 2012 in Austin, where it has since flourished in the community. El Naranjo has been recognized as the best Mexican restaurant in Austin, and it has been named among the top 10 restaurants in the city.

Before reopening El Naranjo in 2012, Chef de la Vega served as the Mexican/Latin Cuisines Specialist for the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) from 2007 to 2012. At the CIA, she conducted research, developed curricula and taught undergraduate, graduate and continuing education courses on Mexican and other Latin cuisines while creating and launching the Latin Cuisines Certificate Program.

Chef de la Vega has received numerous accolades throughout her culinary career, including the 2014 Ohtli Award in recognition of her work in furthering Mexican gastronomy in the United States and the 2014 Hispanic Female Entrepreneur of the Year award from the Greater Austin Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Chef de la Vega was also named a semifinalist in the 2019 and 2020 James Beard Awards for Best Chef: Southwest. In 2022, she became the first-ever winner of the Best Chef: Texas category in the James Beard Awards.

As a restaurateur and consultant, Chef de la Vega creates menus and oversees training in the U.S. and abroad for hotels, restaurants and universities, such as Stanford University and UMASS. Additionally, she and her journalist daughter Isabel lead culinary trips to various regions of Mexico, including Oaxaca,  Mexico City, Michoacán and Mérida through their gastronomic tour company Mexican Culinary Traditions.