Today we’d like to introduce you to Hailee Zentella.
Hi Hailee, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
La Cochinita was formed in 2023 by three owners, Flavio Zentella, Armando Zentella and Hailee Zentella. Originally from Tabasco, Mexico, Flavio and Armando moved to Minnesota. Here they started their careers beginning to work in assisted living homes. Armando went on the be a head chef at a local restaurant, while Flavio completed his culinary degree at MCTC where they later ended up at the same restaurant running two different locations as head chef.
Hailee started her career, not in the kitchen, but in baking. She graduated from The Art Institutes in 2013 and began in the baking industry working her way up to head baker at the same restaurant as Armando and Flavio.
After working for years in the industry, the three decided to create their own company and opened La Cochinita food truck.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
The road to owning our own business has not been the easiest. In the beginning, it was difficult to decide exactly what we wanted to open. We originally wanted a brick and mortar, but financially, it made more sense to open a food truck.
Once we got our business up and running, we learned how to operate a food truck the hard way. This included generator issues, learning to maintain equipment in extreme temperature changes, and learning to navigate the competitive mobile food industry.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
We are a mobile kitchen that specializes in the unique cuisine of Southern Mexico. Most of the Mexican food around is from the northern states. The South of Mexico has not been widely represented up here in the Midwest. Our specialty dish is Cochinita Pibil. It is slow-roasted pork marinated with annatto seeds and wrapped in banana leaves. We serve this in several ways. One of our main dishes we serve is called a salbute, or otherwise known as a puffy taco. It is fresh corn masa that is quickly fried until it puffs.
Another unique dish we serve is the Black Al Pastor. This is thinly sliced pork marinated with recado negro, a charred chile paste. It has a distinct black color and tangy, smoky flavor. We serve this as a salbute and an empanada.
We also make our own desserts including hand-piped churros and tres leches cake.
We serve from the truck beginning in March until November. We offer catering during the holidays and throughout the year.
Our dream is to open a brick-and-mortar restaurant so we can continue to grow and keep developing our unique flavors and family recipes.
Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
The best support is to have people to try our food and become a loyal customer like so many others have already done.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.lacochinitamn.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lacochinitamn/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1A6accafU9/?mibextid=wwXlfr
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/la-cochinita-mn-food-truck-minneapolis
