Ignacio Anaya, a maître d'hôtel at a restaurant in Piedras Negras, in Coahuila, Mexico, created nachos in 1940. The original recipe has just three elements: tortilla chips, cheese and pickled jalapeños.

When were the first nachos made?

According to her work, nachos first appeared in 1943 in Piedras Negras, a small Mexican city which is very near to the U.S. military base Fort Duncan, in Texas.

When did nachos become popular in the US?

By the 1970s, nachos were popular in America, though they had lost the apostrophe in “Nacho's especiales” and were still mostly found in Mexican restaurants.