Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Robert Carnoske. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Robert, 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 family is from Cali, Colombia. As a child growing up visiting family in Colombia was amazing. We would visit every summer and with that came exposure to a fantastic world of culture and food. It was confusing as a kid to want for certain foods, particularly Empanadas when we would come back home to the United States. Making empanadas is a very long process and you don’t just make a few you make a lot. My mother had the same longing for the food that I had and would oblige me with traditional dishes when she had the time. Eventually my parents opened their own restaurant boasting foods from her homeland. This is where I learned how to make empanadas.
Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.
I’ve worked in the industry since I was 15 years old starting in my parents restaurant. Through colllege I worked in various bars and restaurants in both the front and back of house. After college I opened a restaurant with college friends. I walked away from that last experience with the vision of strictly focusing on empanadas. I began making empanadas for friends and family before being approached by a longtime buddy that wanted to open a food truck. What started as a part time weekend thing has turned into a food truck, storefront and a presence in multiple local markets.
How about pivoting – can you share the story of a time you’ve had to pivot?
Just before COVID we moved into a bar space and built out a full kitchen just to close the same month we opened. I had to get back to my roots of selling the empanadas frozen and delivering them twice a week to people in order to survive and stay relevant. That pivot was the perfect catalyst for us to start manufacturing frozen empanadas AKA Take & Bake Empanadas.
How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?
The best thing we could do was only to serve things that we are proud of. The other big thing is to value our reputation and Employees over almost anything else.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Masatulsa.com
- Instagram: @masatulsa
- Facebook: @masatulsa
