We recently connected with Veronica & Vanessa Castillo and have shared our conversation below.

Veronica & Vanessa, appreciate you joining us today. We’d love to have you retell us the story behind how you came up with the idea for your business, I think our audience would really enjoy hearing the backstory.

My sister Vanessa and I worked in the Food industry for many years before we decided to open our own business. We always had the desire to have something of our own specially something we could do together. In 2016 we had the opportunity to travel abroad for a couple of weeks, little did we know we were going to find something that was going to change our lives. we were visiting Prague for the first time, we were mesmerized by its beauty and the feeling we were in a fairy tail. On our way to a Castle, we came across lines of people waiting to buy something that smelled amazing. I convinced my sister to check out what it was and as the foodies that we are, we had to try as many new and interesting food we could find. We entered the bakery and we were so impressed but confused since it was something we had never seen before. We saw bakers hand rolling a dough, wrapping it in a cornet and coating it with sugar. Then they baked it on an open flame rotisserie oven for a couple of minutes. As they grab the freshly baked pastry called Chimney Cake still smoking, they coat it with toppings and filled them with soft serve ice cream and other amazing fillings. We ordered one with strawberries and whipped cream and we fell in love. Chimney Cakes are traditional Hungarian pastries. The texture was perfect, it was crispy on the outside but so soft on the inside, we were surrounded by cathedrals and gothic buildings on a rainy day, It was just a magical moment. We continued our trip, we had a great time and we came back home. A couple of weeks went by and I get woken up in the middle of the night to my sister telling me “Lets bring Chimney Cakes to San Diego” I of course agreed half asleep but the next morning I realized she was being very serious. It was scary but exciting to start this adventure together. We knew it was going to be challenging to bring something new to our city but we were so excited to show what we experienced. we knew we wanted to do something unique, that we could do sweet and savory and Chimney Cakes were perfect for us. We brought everything from Hungary, worked on the recipe and in August 2017 we started at The Farmers Market.

Veronica & Vanessa, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

We are Veronica and Vanessa Castillo, two sisters, local Chefs who started their own business in 2017. My sister Vanessa has been in the culinary field for over a decade. She does international food and she is also a private chef for a Yacht. I am a pastry Chef that has been in the industry for almost 9 years. I specialized in Naked cakes and gourmet desserts. together we created Mia Sorella Chimney Cakes, the first mobile Hungarian Bakery in San Diego. We recently open our first shop in Valle de Guadalupe, Mexico and we hope to open our second shop very soon but this time locally. Chimney Cakes are traditional Hungarian pastries, made out of a yeast dough, hand rolled and freshly baked. Chimney Cakes can be sweet or savory, stuffed or enjoyed traditionally by itself. We are proud to serve a product made 100% with natural ingredients and unique flavors. We came up with a menu that so far everyone has been enjoying from our sweet cranberry goat cheese chimney cone to our Herbs and cheese Chimney Cake, just to name a few. Vanessa and I wanted to bring something unique and special to our city. We do catering, events and Local Farmers Markets. We know the importance of providing fresh and organic ingredients, so we are proud to be able to use fruits and veggies from our local farms. Our artisan pastries are perfect for any occasion, we also do delivery throughout the week. Mia Sorella is about combining food and art and we believe Chimney Cakes can become a staple food in San Diego.

We’d love to hear the story of how you built up your social media audience?

Our Social Media started to grow slowly but organically and I think that is what we are most proud of. Networking is critical to build audience, attending to festivals, local events, farmer’s markets and every single event has helped us to build our audience and clientele. The advise we would like to share is to be consintent with your product, take advantage of good pictures and try to use as many social media tools to advertise your business.

Any fun sales or marketing stories?

After a couple months of starting at the Farmers Market, a big company contacted us to be “The Ultimate Dessert” at their exclusive event “Social Media Marketing World” They hired us to serve over 500 people. It was a great opportunity and of course we took it but we later realized this was our first big event, we did not know what to expect and it was just the two of us. I remember we did not see day light for a couple of days of prepping and getting everything ready, we definitely underestimated the amount of dough and fillings we needed, we were still learning but our perseverance, optimism and desire to make it happen definitely helped us to get through the event. We arrived, we set up at a beautiful venue, and all I remember is hundreds of people coming at us at once creating huge lines waiting for their dessert, I do not know how but we managed to serve every single person. We were rolling, baking and serving at the same time, definitely crazy and chaotic but we were so excited to even have an opportunity like that at such short amount of time since we started. We definitely took a risk by just going by ourselves, with little experience but I think it helped us to realized what we were capable of. I don’t think we had ever been that overwhelmed and tired before but it was totally worth it. People loved it, the room smell amazing and it was definitely a unique experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.miasorellaco.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/miasorellaco/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/miasorellachimneycakes
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/mia-sorella-chimney-cakes-san-diego-2
• Other: tiktok: @miasorellaco

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