Bringing Tradition to the Table

FOR FELIX MAURO TORRES, food isn’t just a business, it’s a connection to culture, heritage, and the lessons he learned growing up in Albuquerque’s North Valley. As the founder of Southwest Heritage Mill and its retail brand, Ancestral Foods, Torres has spent the past two decades reviving traditional New Mexican foodways while adapting them for today’s palate. “I grew up farming with my dad and cooking with my mom at a very young age,” Torres says. “A lot of the products I make now, I was making with my mom in the kitchen—now it’s just on a grander scale.” At his mill in Albuquerque, Torres specializes in roasting and milling heritage corn—red, white, blue, yellow, and green—into meal. “I only source New Mexico–grown, non-GMO, and organic corn,” he says. Ancestral Foods currently offers more than 200 products, including blue corn waffles with piñon, red corn atole, and bizcochitos with green chile. “In order to preserve a traditional ingredient, you have to innovate and create a market for it,” Torres says, “so that it’s there for the next generation.”