Today we’d like to introduce you to Veronica Peinado.
Veronica, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
As a child, I remember watching my mother cooking and loving the smell of the food and the process of how it was done. I remember hearing my friends, neighbors and family always praising her for her extraordinary talents and skills in cooking. Food wasn’t food and holidays weren’t the same if my mom didn’t cook. As I watched, I learned and I started fiddling with the food. I remember each time wanting it to be better and having the inner urge that it needed to look better not just taste better. I wanted people mouth to water at them looking at the food first and then finalizing the sensation once they took their first bite. I wanted the ahhh factor in each bite. My first full meal, I cooked I was approximately eight or nine years old. I made Puerto Rican White Rice and Pollo Guisado. Needless to say, it wasn’t perfect or as good as my mom’s but it was a start. From there, I continued to cook and took home economics at school when I lived in the Town of Cicero in IL and continued to watch my mom and learn from her.
I loved baking and decorating my food and I was infatuated with the goal of making the best desserts and food anyone would eat. I wanted people to remember my food each time they wanted something to eat, I wanted them to remember that no one could do it better than me. Young child, big ambitions. I moved on in my early 20’s to work at Olive Garden in a multitude of positions from Bartender to Sautee cook to trainer. This experience further pushed me to better my skills and thrive for perfection. Simple dinners that I made for friends and family always had to have a curve effect on presentation, color, and décor of the table, home and the surrounding that my guest would be in. From Olive Garden to Ryan’s Steak House in Dalton Georgia food was a part of me and there was nothing I could do to walk away.
In my voyage of food, I meet my partner and now husband Angel Peinado who is a vital part of my success and growth as a Chef. Angel encouraged me when I started taking culinary classes in Cake decorating and baking and didn’t shy away from some of my crazy concoctions that I would come up with. While in Georgia, I started my baking business and pastries and began to dominate that. After a few years, Angel and I moved to Chicago and continued our adventure as cooks and Chef in different companies such as Karyn’s Raw and Cooked, Long Horn Steak House, The Art Institute of Chicago and a few others. Overall, we grew tired of working for others when we had so much passion and will. I took my passion and finished my Bachelor’s Degree in Science in Business Management at NLU Chicago and then moved on the Le Cordon Bleu. No longer wanting to be in the shadows of others, I pushed myself to learn all I could in the food industry and decided that my passion could no longer lay adornment in my soul. Everyone who knew me and was yet to meet me needed to see and taste what true passion is when it came to mouth water amazing food.
As Angel and I grew tired of working for others regardless of how amazing some of our managers, where our hearts were no longer into it. We needed our own. We found The Buggy in an ad and drove 700 miles to pick her up in the State of Georgia. The Buggy is small enough for the two of us to work alone and sturdy enough to test the test of time and culinary skills and art. A kitchen on wheels. Small but a powerful punch. From our small pastry orders and cake orders, we launched The Taco Buggy. It wasn’t easy and the process of Chicago did not allow us to roll freely around Chicago because the Buggy is a trailer and not a Truck. We had to wait a year before physically introducing The Taco Buggy to Chicago in the summer of 2017. We didn’t give up and had assistance from my amazing sister Laritiza Lopez from The Purple Group who assisted us with our website my brother Ismael Lopez as our photographer for our website. Once The Taco Buggy was approved by the Park District of Chicago as one of there new vendors we set our goals and began our very much awaited adventure. It was time to put up or shut up! The time came to show Chicago and the World that I had what it took to succeed and to compete with the other amazing Chef’s here in Chicago.
Together, Angel and I started creating food that most would say “hey, it’s Mexican, how hard can it be.” After you try our Mexican cuisine, you will never think or say that again. Our food stands above the rest because it a combination of Mexican traditional recipe the one your grandma and great-grandma would make and a combination of my mom’s amazing Puerto Rican food. A mixture of three ethnicities and our love for food and our passion to make people want to come back and look for us, regardless where we are stationed in Chicago makes our food and pastries worth the drive. The amazing team that steps in to assist in bigger events and continually supports me is amazing and unconditional love. A heart filled thank you to Iliana Regalado, Brittany Fierro, Maria Ramos, Mellissa McGinniss, Angel Torres, Our butchers at Tony’s Fresh market on Belmont, Santos and Giovani and Mitzy Cardenas who has stood by Angel and me not only as my cousin but our designer for our Shirts and Jackets and assisted at events and a amazing advocate of our Outstanding food. A warm thank you and hug to the CPD’s “Les Flig and John Gorredo” for believing in us and supporting us. As well to everyone who has supported The Taco Buggy. To my husband and partner, it’s the crusade of The Taco Buggy Chicago Angel Peinado thank you for your unconditional support and trust. Thank you for being my genie pig when I felt the need and urge to change this or that and most of all thank you for being at my side and making your own crazy concoctions. Together we have risen and together we will continue to make a name for ourselves. To my mom who continually pushes me to excel and better my food, and shares her recipes and secrets with me. My continual goal is to inspire great food, great flavor and amazing experience in each delicious bite.
Has it been a smooth road?
Culinary Arts is never easy or smooth. It’s one thing to cook at home for a few people but when you are cooking for hundreds and at times thousands wow it’s defiantly a different road. As women in the industry, I have to work harder to show that I can. Lifting my share of the load and not relying on the guys to lift or move this or that for me unless if absolutely necessary. I found my self-being paid less than some of the other male cooks and having double the work or having the boring stations of salad prep or bread. Inventory duty and order because it didn’t require much. I had to work twice as hard to show that I knew what I was doing and I had to take initiatives on plating and cooking when I saw my team falling behind. Showing the head Chefs that I was as capable the male cooks and many times more effective and qualified because of my higher standard for visual presentation and taste. Proving to my Chefs that I was able to run a kitchen team successfully and efficiently. Self-doubt is a strong enemy. Wondering if my food was good or bad, seeing it with my own two eyes and feeling like it could be better. As my hardest critic, no one could judge me more than me. I’ve been known to throw away perfectly delicious food because something just wasn’t right for me. Cakes that look great and tasted even better garbage because it just wasn’t quite right. It needed to be more and better, the person getting this food or pastry from me had to be speechless when seeing it and even more when tasting it. My advice to women: trust your intuitions, your heart, and soul.
Remember that you are doing this for your self and self-satisfaction. Don’t be so hard on yourself when others don’t like what you made. Not everyone is going to like it, We can’t please the world. In your journey, remember that the road will twist and turn and hurdles will be presented. Continue to fight and strive. Roads will divide and cut off yet the woods present other roads and bigger opportunities. Asking for help when needed is not a sign of weakness but a sign of true strength. Whatever road you decide to follow regardless your choice of career do it at 100%, don’t fear; fear. You’ll never know what you are capable of unless you try. The most successful people in the world heard no and your not good enough many times before excelling what makes you so different? Nothing you will be and are all you ever wanted to be with trust, faith, belief and confidence in what you do and who you are. Always do you and no one else!
We’d love to hear more about The Taco Buggy Chicago “Sweet Confections Home of The Taco Buggy.”
“Sweet Confections” The Home of The Taco Buggy Chicago is set apart from others because we are unique in what we do. No other restaurant cooks like us or offers what we offer. We provide our guest with high-quality food and service. We not only provide food and pastries in the City Parks of Chicago but we bring it to your home, office, business, events, churches, and picnics. We offer our Chef’s to go. This is where I or one of my talented chefs go directly to your home/event and cook on the site for you and your guess. No longer do you have to wait in excorticating lines on Mothers Day, Christmas, Thanksgiving and any other special holiday. We bring the restaurant to you. On Father’s day, you want to BBQ but don’t want to be stuck on the grill or serving or cleaning up after your guest? Birthday parties that require you to cook and clean and mix drinks. You barely have time to chat with loved ones and friends. Well, you no longer have to. We do it for you! From Chefs, Grill masters, cooks, bartenders, servers and attendants we make your small to large events less of a headache by doing all the hard work for you. You get to sit back and relax and enjoy the event and have an amazing experience while my team and I do all the heavy lifting. You know your schedule is going to be crazy this week and you don’t want fast food? That’s ok, call us and we will set up a meal plan for you for the week where each day you and your family will receive a hot meal at dinner time of your choosing.
From Mexican, Puerto Rican, Italian to Indian ext. we can make a meal plan that will work for you. What do I do? I do it all! I believe that I can not lead an effective team if I am unable the do what they do. So with that being said, I’ve learned all aspect of the kitchen. I can grill, sauté, bake, serve, bartend, prep ext. I love plating because of it the final step of what we do and one of the most important. As my mom says people eat with their eyes first and then there mouths and stomachs. If it looks amazing, smells amazing then it will taste amazing. Presentations are of most importance. What I’m most proud of as a brand is that thus far we have been able to stand apart from others. When people ask if we are authentic we smile and laugh and say “close your eyes, take a bite and tell me what part of Mexico or Puerto Rico are you in?” Our food is divine, it’s flavorful and it is made with a large amount of passion and pride. When people eat our food the satisfaction we feel as they start shaking there heads up and down and smiling as though it’s the best food they ever put in their mouths. That is always something to be proud of.
Which women have inspired you in your life?
I know this might sound cheesy, but it is absolutely the truth! The woman who has inspired me the most is my mother Carmen R. Martin! hands down my mom have been the most influential woman in my life. She not only has taught me to cook in a way that no schooling or culinary school can teach you, you know the old school way, with heart, passion, and pride. Let’s not forget when mom runs down the list of things that I and my team could have done better to make the event or item better. She doesn’t hold back and even when I’m bothered by it I know she does it to push me to strive for better and to give my clients the best product and service I can possibly give. My sister Laritza Lopez who shows strength in all she does and pushes me to do the same. Her continual reminder that just because we are women does not mean we must yield to life but attack it and work for what we want. My other sister Anabel Lopez who shows life has so much to offer and even when things are down one can still rise above. My cousin, Mitzy Cardenas who stands by my side and is dead honest with me when I need it the most. Gives me the pep talks that I need before, during and after events. Chef Cara Benski who taught me how to make the best chocolate chip cookies in the world, éclairs, cream puffs and showed me that love for the kitchen comes from the heart. Also, her demand for design and better platting techniques that made me shine above the rest. Her assistance before and after class and even now when I have questions she doesn’t shy away but opens her heart to me. Chef Jeannie Stephenson who saw my talents in cake decorating and taught me to search deeper inside myself and to believe that I could make any possible shape out of a cake I wanted. Assisted me in my first Corvette cake and fondant creations. Chef Melissa Trimmer who was patient with me when it came to equations and the administrative aspect of our field and for looking for me when it came to a special event at school to assist in master chef classes and tutoring of other students to excel my own knowledge because by teaching one learns so much more. To these women who believed in me and continue to believe in me, I’m eternally grateful for.
Contact Info:
- Address: The Taco Buggy Chicago
- Website: TheTacoBuggy.com chicagocakesbakery.com
- Phone: 773-818-8975
- Email: TheTacoBuggy@gmail.com
- Facebook: The Taco Buggy / Chicago
Image Credit:
Brittany Fierro from Fierrographia, Ismael Lopez from TQM photography
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