{"id":337724,"date":"2026-07-12T17:13:19","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/337724\/"},"modified":"2026-07-12T17:13:19","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T17:13:19","slug":"the-tampa-florida-taco-truck-where-guy-fieri-had-one-of-the-best-tortas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/337724\/","title":{"rendered":"The Tampa, Florida Taco Truck Where Guy Fieri Had ‘One Of The Best Tortas’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Celebrity chef Guy Fieri is known for celebrating hidden gems from the restaurants featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives.”<\/a>\u00a0But sometimes, the best food isn’t made in a diner, drive-in, or dive. In a 2011 episode, Fieri’s travels took him to Tampa, Florida, where he found an amazing torta … on a bus.<\/p>\n

The torta sandwich is a staple of Mexican cuisine<\/a>, and some of Fieri’s favorite great eats<\/a>\u00a0happen to come from this country. The sandwich that the Triple D host described as “one of the best tortas I’ve ever had” was the work of chef Ren\u00e9 Valenzuela, owner of the aptly named Taco Bus restaurant (via YouTube<\/a>). Upon taking his first bite, Fieri even shouted one of his signature catchphrases: “That is out of bounds!”<\/p>\n

The particular torta that captured Fieri’s heart was the torta chilorio, which featured carnitas in a spicy chilorio sauce, fresh vegetables, refried beans, and shredded cheese \u2014 it was all stuffed into\u00a0a homemade\u00a0telera roll\u00a0(a soft, oval-shaped white bread with a lightly crisp crust).\u00a0He was immediately struck by the freshness of the roll and the perfect balance of spice created by the sauce and jalape\u00f1os.<\/p>\n

Read more: Celebrity Chefs Who Are Jerks Behind The Scenes<\/a><\/p>\n

How this Guy Fieri-approved torta is made\"Torta<\/p>\n

Torta and drink from Taco Bus restaurant – Forkingaroundtampa \/ Instagram<\/p>\n

To make the torta,\u00a0chef Ren\u00e9 Valenzuela started by simmering the pork in lard with bay leaves, allspice, and fresh oranges for a couple of hours before shredding it. Then, he blended toasted and rehydrated ancho and pasilla peppers with oregano, vinegar, garlic cloves, and salt to make the chilorio sauce. Once that was done, he fried the shredded carnitas in the sauce.<\/p>\n

When it came time to build the sandwich, Valenzuela grabbed a toasted roll and spread refried beans on the bottom half. Next came a pile of shredded pork, followed by these finishing touches:\u00a0shredded cheese, finely shaved cabbage, diced white onions, pickled red onions, chopped tomatoes, jalape\u00f1o peppers, and a sprinkle of cilantro.<\/p>\n

While the 35-foot-bus-turned-restaurant has since been traded for eight brick-and-mortar locations, foodies can still taste the legendary Taco Bus torta for themselves. With options like grilled chicken, shrimp, butternut squash, and vegan steak,\u00a0anyone can build the torta of their dreams.<\/p>\n

For more food and drink goodness, join The Takeout’s newsletter<\/a> and add us as a preferred search source<\/a>. Get taste tests, food & drink news, deals from your favorite chains, recipes, cooking tips, and more!<\/p>\n

Read the original article on The Takeout<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Celebrity chef Guy Fieri is known for celebrating hidden gems from the restaurants featured on “Diners, Drive-Ins and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":337725,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[85113,13592,138995,138994,115212,135,137,136,138993],"class_list":["post-337724","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-guy-fieri","tag-mexican-cuisine","tag-rene-valenzuela","tag-shredded-cheese","tag-taco-bus","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-torta-sandwich"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337724","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=337724"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/337724\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/337725"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=337724"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=337724"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=337724"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}