Aarón Sánchez On Why Whataburger Is The Best Fast Food - Exclusive

Aarón Sánchez made his name in fine dining. Per Inside Hook, his first culinary mentor was Paul Prudhomme, the legendary New Orleans chef who introduced Creole and Cajun food to many Americans that had never experienced it before (via Eater). After his time as a teenager working under Prudhomme at the upscale Creole restaurant K-Paul's. Sánchez went on to open a string of successful fine dining Mexican restaurants, including Paladar, which earned Time Out New York's award for Best Latin American Restaurant in 2002. (He also comes from an illustrious culinary heritage: His mother, Zarela Martínez, and grandmother, Aida Gabilondo, both published cookbooks about Mexican cuisine, reports the Austin American-Statesman.)

These days, according to Sánchez's website, he runs the restaurant Johnny Sánchez in New Orleans and is a James Beard award winner. And now, the chef is continuing his family tradition of educating people about Latin American cuisine with a new cooking series, "El Sabor de Aarón." The chef sat down with Mashed for an exclusive interview to talk about the show, Latin food, and culture. You might think that with his fine dining pedigree, Sánchez wouldn't be into fast food, but we soon found out that's a wrong assumption. The chef told Mashed what his favorite fast food place is, and why it has everything to do with their sauce.

Whataburger may not exist outside of the American South, but the burger chain's limited geographic scope is more than made up for by the intense devotion of its fans, especially in its home state of Texas. Aarón Sánchez told Mashed he has had many fast food loves, but as a native of El Paso, Texas, he had to pick the burger chain for a special shout-out. As he said, "I'm a huge Whataburger fan."

According to Sánchez, "What makes Whataburger different in the true Texas way" is the chain's burger sauce. He said, "Most of the other places have that special sauce, which is basically ketchup and mayo with relish in it." Whataburger, on the other hand, uses "a mustard-based dressing. That makes a huge difference as far as flavor."

It makes sense that Sánchez, who also shouted out his love for chiles and citrus in the interview, would like a zesty condiment like mustard more than sweet burger sauce. And if he didn't pick Whataburger, well he might ended up getting burned by the brand's spicy Twitter account.

You can watch "El Sabor de Aarón" on Hogar de HGTV Thursdays at 9:00 p.m. and on Discovery Familia Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. All times are Eastern.