All Classes are taught by Sylvia Casares, a food scientist, chef and restaurateur. She is an engaging teacher who shares the history and traditions of each dish and spice. Born in Brownsville, Texas, she named her restaurant after her signature menu item, nineteen enchiladas. Each enchilada reflects a specific region of Texas, the Texas-Mexico border, or Mexico. 

As a food scientist, she learned that every short cut or substitution you make to a recipe will cost you flavor. And she is all about flavor! She has spent years perfecting her recipes, working hard to make each one a ten. She uses the best ingredients money can buy, so that when her customers dine at one of her restaurants, they are eating the very best Interior of Mexico, simple home-style Tex-Mex, or special mesquite grilled meats like Cabrito and Carne Asada.

Texas Monthly magazine said Casares serves the “Best Enchiladas, Best Flautas and Best Tres Leches” in Houston, and Television Chef Rachael Ray says her food “is out of this world!” And when H Texas magazine anointed Casares The Queen of Tex-Mex Cuisine,” she was positioned as the cuisine’s official spokesperson. In 2008, Casares was selected as on of the top ten best chefs in the USA by the Spanish Language magazine Siempre Mujer and as the number one Best Chef in Houston by H Texas magazine.

In fact, in 2005, Casares was selected by Jel Sert to create recipes using their gelatins, puddings and flans and to be their celebrity spokesperson and provided the voice for in their national radio advertising campaign. Just recently, Casares was chosen to be the Texas Spokesperson and Hostess for Unilever’s national million-dollar cooking competition, Desafio del Sabor. Casares has appeared on the Food Network: in “The Secret Life of....Tex Mex Food,”

“Actually, Sylvia’s is a local classic in its own right, thanks to the careful ministrations of its perfectionist owner, Sylvia Casares.” Alison Cook, Houston Chronicle.

Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen’s Cheese Enchiladas are “South Texas Tex-Mex at its finest and most genuine.” Katharine Shilcutt, Houston Press

In 2012, Casares celebrated the Woodway location’s third-year anniversary, the Westheimer location’s eleventh-year anniversary, her cooking school’s ninth-year anniversary, her twenty-fourth year as a food scientist and her fourteenth year as a restaurateur.