Today we’d like to introduce you to Cecile De Mello.
Cecile, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
SoulBoricua, LLC is a company with a mission of bringing quality food and service that uplifts the community, with a caring and supportive workplace, while offering food that inspires. SoulBoricua is the brainchild of my family combining our African American and Puerto Rican heritage and working together to share their passion and love for family, community, and great wholesome food. In 2013, I began thinking about how food is such a fundamental part of building community, it was at the center of meetings, events, and relationship building. However, many do not have diverse and healthy options in parts of the city of Chicago.
Our company began catering to small, not for profits with our unique menu. One special ingredient for many of our dishes is the traditional base of Puerto Rican dishes… sofrito. A vegetable and herb blend that is used as a base in cooking. With our mission to support healthier cooking, it has become apart of business and community service expansion we took our healthy cooking approach and developed our marinade and base Soulfrito.
This product was apart of the local business that was on board at Whole Foods Market Englewood in 2016. Since then our product and catering have continued to have rapid growth.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Our main obstacle is maintaining a balance between our families, jobs, all the while maintaining our business. I and my younger sister, Jessica lead SoulBoricua. The two of us are married with three children each an on top of that have other careers we maintain. While we work to take the company to the next step and multitasking with fulfilling our home and career duties can be difficult. We stay determined and aggressive with our goals.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about SoulBoriuca – what should we know?
SoulBoricua is special in that our company has a mission component. Our motives are to showcase our menu we grew up, blended cultures-complimenting, showing beauty and tension in our recipes. Our other motives of healthy eating are why Soulfrito is so important. Soulfrito can be used in so many ways that reduce salt, and allows for families to add lots of taste to vegetables, meat and seafood, beans, hummus, and rice! In addition, it is great for working mothers. In most Puerto Rican homes sofrito is made homemade and then stored for future dishes. However the modern household time can more scarce, Soulfrito can be a key support for cooking healthy with a busy schedule. Our company is family owned and works with residents of Chicago’s southside even hiring those with criminal backgrounds. Chef Jessica does healthy cooking classes throughout the Southside of Chicago reaching hundreds on healthy eating, and she also trains Southside residents and returning citizens in the hospitality field. SoulBoricua is truly a social enterprise that makes doing good taste good.
Any shoutouts? Who else deserves credit in this story – who has played a meaningful role?
The foundation of SoulBoricua is our parents, they are involved in operations and are our biggest marketing tool! Their support has been from the emergency babysitting to deliveries to our mother… helping with her amazing culinary skills.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.soulboricua.com
- Instagram: @soulboricua
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/soulboricua/
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