Will van Overbeek/Houston Press Matt Martinez Jr., the "King of Tex-Mex," died on Friday. He was 63. Martinez and his family owned the Dallas restaurants Matt's Rancho Martinez and Matt's No Place as well as a stake in Matt's El Rancho in Austin, the restaurant his father founded. Robb Walsh, on his embrace of the term: Matt Jr. was attending a cooking class taught by Englishwoman Diana Kennedy, who spoke derisively of Americanized Mexican food."She said she only did authentic Mexican food, not Tex-Mex," Martinez fumed in the introduction to his book [Matt Martinez's Culinary Frontier]. "I was so insulted." To defy Kennedy and those who belittled his heritage, he decided to abandon any claim to "authentic Mexican" and...
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