ROSEVILLE, Calif. — Imagine dining at your favorite taqueria without first munching on a basket of crispy, golden tortilla chips. This wildly popular appetizer is a staple at any Mexican food establishment, but it surprisingly didn't originate in México.
The crispy corn triangles were actually invented in a Los Angeles tortilla shop by Rebecca Webb, a woman who became affectionately known as the “Mother of the Tortilla Chip,” a title she wore proudly until she died in 2006. Her nephew, Mike Webb, proudly recalled her legacy.
“Well, she's the one that said, 'I'm the mother of the tortilla chip,”' Webb said.
Webb shared how the family business began with his father, Milton Webb, a glassworker-turned-sheet metal mechanic during World War II.
“He saw a machine making something and thought, ‘I could make that. I bet I could make a machine that'll do tortillas,’” said Webb.
In the 1940s and 50s, making tortillas was a laborious, time-consuming process with few machines available to ease the workload. Milton, a bit of an inventor, changed that.
“My mother said my father worked day and night for two years building that machine,” Mike recalled.
Initially, Milton intended to sell his invention, but his sister Rebecca talked him into the restaurant business as well.
“When I look at these pictures, I can still smell the place; it was wonderful,” Webb said.
As a child, Mike Webb witnessed his father’s tortilla-making machine in action. He said it worked great but it would occasionally produce a defective tortilla and it really bothered Rebecca.
“It was killing her to see that just going in the trash — wasted. She saw that money being thrown away,” Mike said.
Rebecca took matters into her own hands, cutting up the tortillas, frying them, salting them and packaging them in small cellophane bags to sell for a nickel.
The chips quickly became a hit and were flying off the shelf. The Webbs soon added them to their list of food products they sold.
“She was the first one in Los Angeles to be in the tortilla chip business,” Mike said.
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As the years passed, other tortilla shops began making chips, and eventually, large snack companies started mass-producing them. Mike said today’s chips are not as good as his aunt’s original recipe because she used lard, not oil, to cook them. Unfortunately, Rebecca never patented her creation.
“No, it was a shame,” Mike reflected.
Mike said his aunt Rebecca left the chip-making business after a complicated divorce, but in 1994, the Los Angeles Food Industry honored both Milton and Rebecca with a prestigious award.
“It was the Golden Tortilla Award for their contribution to the Mexican food industry,” Mike said.
Both Rebecca and Milton passed away at the age of 98, but their inventions left a lasting legacy. Milton’s tortilla-making machine gave small taquerias across America the independence and opportunity to mass-produce their own tortillas, while Rebecca’s invention of the tortilla chip revolutionized the way we enjoy Mexican food.
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