Amado the First

Tit’s Tacos specializes in No.1 designations. The No. 1 person to appear on the Rachael Ray camera was Employee No. 1, the friendly and familiar cook so well known by Tito’s regulars, Amado Madera. Forty-seven years ago, Mr. Madera was a teenager when he was the first employee hired by Benjamin Davidson, the founder of Tito’s, and the grandfather of the present owner Lynne Davidson. Still shy and self-effacing after all of these years, Mr. Madera had no notion at the time that he would stand at the crossroads of culinary Culver City history, nor that his handsome, moustachioed face would become celebrated by appearing in advertisements for Tito’s Tacos. “I don’t think I can do it,” Mr. Madera said when he was assigned the chore of cooking the first tacos. “I have watched you, and I know that you can,” Mr. Davidson told him. “But I did not know how to cook,” Mr. Madera mildly protested. Not by coincidence but by design, a Tito’s taco is an experience to savor and to remember. Mr. Madera said that within 3 months, he had mastered the techniques for creating the tacos that would make Tito’s famous across Los Angeles. How did he know when the taco was just right? “When I started, I would taste it, over and over,” Mr. Madera said. “Once when I did, I said, ‘I used too much salt.’ Other times, I would say, ‘I need a little more of this,’ ‘A little more of that.’” At the end of his experimentation, how did he know he had struck nutritional gold? Mr. Madera smiled. ”My taste told me,” he said, direct and logical as he could be.

A History Lesson

While Mr. Davidson often is characterized as the visionary founder of Tito’s, in the very beginning, he had a partner. After about a year, Mr. Davidson’s partner talked about buying him out. The plan did not work. So Mr. Davidson said he would do the buying out. Except he didn’t have enough money. Family lore has it that Mr. Davidson engineered the deal by floating a loan from his former wife, the grandmother of Lynne Davidson.

Postscript

When the Tito’s Tacos segment is aired, probably in late January, it will be part of the fast-food features on Rachael Ray’s Tasty Travels shows. “For these episodes, great fast-food places all across the country that are unique will be shown,” said Steve Guerrieri, a spokesperson for Ms. Ray. “Tito’s is a landmark in L.A.” How did the Food Network find Tito’s? “Everybody knows it,” he said. “As part of our research, we know the places that we go. So here we are.”

And About That Name

Lynne Davidson said she has known Mr. Madera since she was 6 years old. “Amado,” she said with a twinkle, “is my uncle.” What a coincidence. Tito, in Spanish, you see, means “little uncle.”