In the fall of 2021, I was invited by Alex Martin and Yotaka Promtun of Lom Wong (the downtown Phoenix James Beard Award-nominated Thai restaurant) to celebrate their new documentary. Over dinner, I was introduced to their friends Lawrence “LT” Smith, III and Aseret Arroyo, then owners of the Chilte food truck, and immediately recognized them by their Chilte Instagram.
Thanks to Arroyo’s posts, I had been drooling over colorful photos of cochinita pibil tacos with pink grapefruit and chorizo pastor burgers with pineapple and green chile. I had yet to experience their inventive culinary creations, but days later, I finally visited their food truck to chow down on fantastic chorizo pastor and birria tacos on handmade tortillas.
In September 2020, Smith, a former NFL player with the Indianapolis Colts, and his fiancée Arroyo launched Chilte Tacos at the Mesa Farmers Market and soon had fans, and press, buzzing. Phoenix New Times wrote about their quesabirria tacos on squid ink tortillas and tamales made with chapulines (grasshoppers roasted with garlic and chile). The Arizona Republic shared their duck fat chicken carnitas on jalapeño and cranberry tortillas and spoke of the couple’s dream of opening a brick-and-mortar restaurant.
That dream was realized this past February when Chilte debuted as a restaurant inside the historic Egyptian Motor Hotel in downtown Phoenix, where it quickly garnered more attention from national publications such as Bon Appetit and Forbes, and earned a spot on Mashed website’s “11 Best New US Restaurants to Try in 2023.”
I recently had a chance to talk with Smith and learn more about his culinary journey and the road to Chilte.
How did you transition from football to a culinary career?
When I hung up my cleats, I was looking for my next passion. In high school, I would bake cakes for my family, and in college, I loved making cheesecake and was always having cookouts for my team. I decided to apply for the Food Network’s Great Food Truck Race and we made it all the way to the finals and casting. I said if we don’t get on, I’m going to go to culinary school and when we didn’t, I went to Arizona Culinary Institute.
How did you get your start?
My first professional kitchen was elements at Sanctuary. I applied for pastry, but ended up getting in as a cold line cook. At the time, I was working with Beau MacMillan, Peter McQuaid, and Rene Andrade. I was growing fast, but when there wasn’t room for me to move up, they sent me to work for Alex Stratta at Match at FOUND:RE.
That must have been a great experience.
It was amazing. Chef Stratta was in the kitchen every single day, so I had hands-on coaching and mentorship working shoulder to shoulder with him.
What was another pivotal point in your career?
I was an opening sous-chef under Rene and Roberto [Centeno] at Ghost Ranch. That’s where I met Aseret. The GM was friends with her sister and they linked us up. While there, I became the executive pastry chef for Tempe Public Market Cafe too, which was super fun. So I ended up working for the group as Ghost Ranch sous-chef, executive pastry chef, and even bartending, at the same time. I wanted to learn everything.
How did you transition to Chilte?
Being out of work with the pandemic is when the wheels really started turning about building my own thing. We tested recipes in my kitchen and then applied for all the permits. Our first Commissary Kitchen was at Frites Street, and then Local First Arizona Kitchen in Tempe, close to the Mesa Farmers Market. That was our first market, with just me and Aseret working the grill and tortilla press.
What was on your first menu?
Our hand-pressed tortillas, of course, with birria and chorizo pastor with pineapple salsa.
Were you successful right away?
No. We had weeks where we had no sales or just two or three. It was very disheartening.
How did that change?
We’re both hustlers and fighters, so we persevered and decided to keep fighting a little longer. From the few sales we did, we were getting really positive feedback, so those pops of positivity helped. And then it finally clicked and people caught on.
What made you move to a food truck?
It was always part of my goal. We were able to get it with a lot of help from our families and it opened up our range and introduced us to new pockets of followers.
And now you’ve opened Chilte as a restaurant. How would you describe it?
It definitely has a Mexican heart, but not the Mexican that you would expect. We pull influence from our travels in Mexico, our life experiences, and Aseret’s culture growing up in Sinaloa and LA. It’s about culture and tradition. Whether it’s the Japanese influence in Sinaloa, the Afro-Mexican influence in Guadalajara, or the indigenous influence in the Yucatan, we use common threads to experiment with flavor.
Tell me about your menu.
The first menu was a little all over the place, but with our second menu, we’ve reined it in and I’m very excited about it. There are favorites I like to eat personally, like a big-ass birria taco on a flour tortilla, things I missed making in the food truck like the green chorizo vampiro, and items that also work for our to-go window like the chorizo burger. And our yuca fries are just phenomenal—super crispy outside and pillowy inside. They’re a labor of love, let me tell you.
And your Black Pink dish was inspired by your appearance on Food Network’s Chopped?
Yes, I was on a chocolate episode. I wanted to be ready in case they put something weird in the basket, like seafood. They didn’t, but I had built a whole dish in my head with shrimp and chocolate aguachile just in case, so it was really exciting to put it on the menu.
I know your mole trio is a signature, too.
The moles were inspired by a trip through Oaxaca and are all made in-house. Our mole Negro is made with a super-dark cocoa, chiltepin pepper, and dried chiles, the mole amarillo is a yellow caper and raisin-based mole, and our mole pipian is a green mole with pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and a bunch of herbs like hoja santo, epazote, and cilantro. You can have the mole as an appetizer, or as an entrée, by adding bone marrow from Underbelly on 7th Ave or beautiful lamb from Argentina.
What are your goals?
I want people to keep coming back. I don’t want you to just say, “that was super cool” and think of us as niche. I hope you say, “man, the food is great, and the staff is dope.” You may have to Google an ingredient, but our food is rooted in Mexican tradition, recognizable, homey, and should remind you of something that you grew up eating. I want people to see what we are doing, feel comfortable, and keep coming back.
Written by Christina Barrueta
Photography by Luke Irvin