Ignacio Anaya García (15 August 1895 – 9 November 1975) was a Mexican maître d'hotel[1][2] who invented the popular Tex-Mex dish nachos at the Victory Club restaurant a couple miles from the border of Texas in Mexico in 1943.

[1][3][4][2] After nachos grew in popularity, Anaya was promoted to chef, and he eventually started his own restaurant in the 1960s.

[5] Born in San Carlos, Manuel Benavides, Chihuahua, Mexico[3] on 15 August 1895,[6] he worked at the Victory Club restaurant in Piedras Negras, Coahuila, Mexico, a restaurant close to the US border and popular with Americans from a nearby base during World War II.

Anaya created nachos while working there one day in 1943 [1][3] when a group of US Army wives entered and the chef was nowhere to be found.

[3] Smithsonian Magazine ranked nachos as a sports stadium favorite in 1976, following the invention of a processed cheese sauce by Frank Liberto.