Daily Inspiration: Meet Julio Hernandez

Today we’d like to introduce you to Julio Hernandez.

Hi Julio, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
I have to start by explaining where I grew up. I grew up in a small state of Mexico call Tlaxcala (Translates to LAND OF BREAD OF CORN) located in central Mexico a heavy corn farming town, I still recall the town having a strong Bartering system, you know trade of charcoal for a few dozen eggs or firewood for a few pints of lard. We had currency, but those early days taught me into appreciating other people’s skills.

The last Sunday of the month was a very special day for me (age 7) it meant I had an opportunity to hustle while delivering the traditional Carnitas & chorizo to the neighborhood from our pigs that we raised and cooked to make extra income, my favorite memories come from Dia de Los Muertos when the whole town would schedule back to back times to use our Woodfire oven to bake their bread to decorate their Ofrendas.

Fast forward – 4 years later (11 years old), I found out I had to move to the Bronx NY with my father whom I knew from his weekly visits to Mexico once a year I didn’t know the language, lost my friends & didn’t understand how can someone be happy in a tiny apartment.

I remembered refusing to learn the language because I didn’t want to belong, but one day something really amazing happened, I had my first slice of Pizza! I can still taste that moment, from that point forward life started getting better I had the best summers of my life and even had a new crew to hang out with. Food was my language & at the age of 14, I found myself working in Time Square in the famous RESTAURANT ROW the fast phase Broadway world. Gotta make it to the Theater.

I got my first job as a dishwasher, followed by a busboy, followed by a food runner, followed by a server in the blink of an eye I was now 17 and decided to transition to a Back of the house, I wanted to be a badass like the cooks in Restaurant row, 5th avenue & meatpacking district I ended up working all over the city, including working my days off for free, I was very happy it was an adrenaline thing for me.

I eventually got to work for the famous chef such as Lidia Bastianich, Mario Batali, Julian Medina, and Jean George Vongerichten and got my ass kicked so bad doing it I should’ve run and never come back, I was barely a Teenager & my coworkers were well travel & extremely experienced kitchen OGs.

My 20s came and I became a dad, it was time to leave the fast life of NYC & make my first grown-up decision.
We moved to NASHVILLE sometime around 2010. The hot chicken wasn’t even big yet. Fried Catfish & Pecan crusted pork loin with sweet potato mash smothered in a Maple syrup butter sauce was the scene.

It was a fresh start and I knew nothing about the industry, but that didn’t matter because I had a one-bedroom apartment in Antioch with a front patio. I had arrived in Beverly hills compared to the space back in NY. I ended up working in Country clubs for the next eight years and landed an Executive Chef position at the age of 26.

At age 29 I left the Country Club scene & all the pasta making, butchering, and basting with butter to take on a TAQUERIA executive chef position, from high end cooking to Mass production TACOLAND, However, I was never really happy, the restaurant was busier than ever, but I knew something was wrong, something was missing. I had no clue what tho.

2020 came & Covid became a thing, I was 30 and 4 kids! For some reason the feeling of knowing that my family depended on someone else’s decisions during these difficult times made me freak out & realized I needed to start my own thing. I had been researching TORTILLAS for the past four years, I was never happy with any tacos because they all tasted empty & everyone else, the vessel was soulless without culture.

I decided to use all of my savings & export my first thousand pounds of HEIRLOOM MAIZ from Mexico, also purchased a 5horse power 600lb Molino with volcanic stones to mill corn into masa. After much trial & error, I achieved a proper tortilla & Maiz de la Vida was born.

In the past ten months, we went from a plastic 4×6 table with a tablecloth to selling tortillas by the dozen at farmers’ market, to building a food truck that has served nearly 5 thousand pounds of corn one tortilla at a time to a test kitchen in North Nashville & a Brick & Mortar in the Gulch right across the street from the legendary Arnold’s Country Kitchen.

All the years in high volume, the high-end kitchen got me ready to make Tortillas, took me back to my childhood, and took me back to realizing why I was so mad about leaving Mexico as a kid. I was leaving behind my favorite thing to eat. I didn’t get to eat a good tortilla again for the next 19 years until Maiz de la Vida was born.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Everyone knows what Tacos are, but no one has a clue what a tortilla should taste like. Including Latinos, we forgot, that convenience got the best of most.

You can find a 72ct pack of tortillas at Walmart for 2.72$ makes me wonder what are they really selling?

Is it the labor of making that cheap product, is it the preservatives, is it the transportation of the product to the store or is it the packaging? Because they aren’t selling tortillas.

We love surprises, fun facts, and unexpected stories. Is there something you can share that might surprise us?
I was a single dad of my 5-year-old boy & 18-month baby girl at the age of 26.

Their Mom decided she didn’t want to do it anymore. This happened in the same month I got my first Executive Chef position.

We are now a family of 6 + a Golden retriever and a cat.

Contact Info:

• Email: [email protected]
• Website: maizdelavida.com
• Instagram: @maiz_dlv
• Facebook: Maiz de la vida