This article was written by Santana Bellantoni and featured in Guelph Today on July 17, 2025.
A chance vacation led to love, marriage, and now a taco business for one Guelph couple
It’s about as close to eating tacos in Mexico as you can get – except these are made in Guelph, with love, by a woman from Cancún.
Iliari Alarcon started Tacos Chidos with her husband Tyler Belluz late last year, all while she was on maternity leave. Their son Luciano is now one-and-a-half years old and loves to eat.
Alarcon’s friends enjoy her cooking so much they told her she should start selling tacos. She isn’t a chef, but she loves to cook, so Tacos Chidos was born.
“We started in the, I believe, the most busiest time of our lives,” said Alarcon.
At the beginning, the couple thought it was going to be hard starting a business and having a newborn because of the lack of sleep. But now it’s more challenging since Luciano is walking and life is even busier than before.
In 2019, Alarcon came to Toronto on vacation to visit a friend. During her vacation she matched with Belluz on a dating app and went on a date. Not too long after, Belluz flew to Cancún to spend two weeks with her.
She came to Guelph to stay with him for a month but a month turned into forever.
The pandemic hit, and she wasn’t able to fly home. The couple ended up getting married, starting a family and building a business together.
Tacos Chidos started off as a catering business with pop-ups at places like Brothers Brewing, La Poche, Goodlot Brewery, weddings and private events. It expanded to the Guelph Farmers’ Market on Saturdays. All the cooking is done at the commercial-grade kitchen called Nourish Kitchen at 10C.
To make their tacos more available, they’ve launched Taco Tuesday at 10C. The first Taco Tuesday will be Aug. 5 from noon to 1 p.m. and, to celebrate, Mariachi Fuego will perform.
“But our main thing is it was more to show the community that you can find authentic Mexican tacos affordably and made with tons of love with an authentic Mexican, half Mexican family,” said Alarcon.
The menu is all tacos. The couple makes barbacoa (beef brisket), chorizo (ground pork), tinga (pulled chicken), cochinita (pulled pork), picadillo (ground beef) tacos and a variety of vegan options too.
Ingredients like banana leaves, achiote paste, spices, orange juice, and Mexican oregano are used in the slow cooking process of the meat.
Tacos Chidos translates to cool tacos in Spanish.
“Because we say chido for everything,” said Alarcon.
The emblem of the business is inspired by El Santo, an iconic lucha libre Mexican wrestler. Alarcon grew up watching El Santo in movies and her dad watched him wrestle in the flesh. She wanted the logo to be sentimental to her and not be a skull or La Catrina, typically used at Mexican restaurants in North America.
She learned to cook from her mom, grandmothers and great-grandmother. She has a distinct memory of her great-grandmother sitting at the dining room table cleaning beans, with a Coca-Cola watching telenovelas.
Belluz also loves to cook and it’s what makes it easy for the couple to be a team in the kitchen.
“We’re not really in it for the money. It’s more just for the fun aspect,” said Belluz.
The goal is for more freedom to spend time with their son and to have a thriving business.
If she were to dream big, Alarcon said she would love to open a tiny taqueria someday.
