If you browse Chef Rosana Rivera’sYelp Pageorcatering website, you’ll find everything from artisanal charcuterie style snack sets to tapas boxes to “The Empanadas that Beat Bobby Flay.” Yes, really—Rosana’s Puerto Rican family recipe for beef empanadas actually did triumph against the celebrity chef in a 2019 episode of击败了博比·.
The first Latina to win击败了博比·,Rosana said her victory was one of the biggest accomplishments in her career. It was also a huge moment for residents of Tampa, where Rosana has lived for years, as well as for Puerto Ricans around the world.
”[Empanadas] are something that I’ve made all my life since I was probably 10 or 12 years old. It’s a family recipe,” Rosana said. “I’m so glad that was chosen because it reflected my culture, the way I cook, and my country.”
The televised win, paired with the pandemic the following year, changed the trajectory of Rosana’s career. After focusing on brick-and-mortar restaurants for many years, Rosana began to look inward and redefine herself as a professional chef, which has since resulted in her luxury catering business, cooking classes, and an e-commerce site.
Key business takeaways
- Adaptability and resilience are key in building a lasting business that can survive unexpected challenges
- Taking the time to look inward can help you evaluate what matters to you and your business
- Be present in your community and give back when you can, whether through charity or mentorship
Turning her passion into a career
Born in Puerto Rico, Rosana moved to New York in 2002, then to Florida just a year later, eventually settling down in Tampa. Both her mother and grandmother cooked and ran catering side gigs when she was growing up, selling foods like cookies or empanadas.
“Food is just in my veins,” Rosana said. “It comes from my culture that’s very food oriented. It’s very easy for all of us to fall in love with food.”
Despite a lifelong love for cooking, Rosana held a corporate sales and marketing job for years before going to culinary school at the Art Institute of Tampa, where she received a degree in culinary arts.
“Going to culinary school was a personal decision more than anything else because if I was going to take this journey in my life, I wanted to do it the right way,” Rosana said. “I wanted to just get better at what I love doing.”
After graduating, Rosana remained at the Art Institute of Tampa as a teacher, running a catering business on the side. It was then that she would meet fellow chef Ricardo Castro, who would become her husband and business partner and experience a whirlwind of opportunities and challenges at Rosana’s side.
Overcoming unexpected challenges
In 2012, Rosana teamed up with her husband to open Piquant, a full-service, French-inspired restaurant and bakery.After battling bankruptcy, they sold the restaurant in 2018 after six years of operation.
For their next venture, the couple entered The Hall on Franklin, a local Tampa food hall, first through Xilo, an authentic Mexican restaurant, and then a bakery called Chef & The Baker.
“It’s a chapter in our life, and I’m glad I had it, but it was absolute, pure craziness,” Rosana said. “We did it successfully for many years but made many mistakes like everybody does in their first business.”
After years of ups and downs in the restaurant industry, Rosana was planning for her career to truly take off when her Bobby Flay win aired in December 2019. However, her plans came to a halt when the pandemic suddenly hit in March 2020.
Rather than sit back, Rosana and Ricardo stayed motivated and learned to adapt. Within a week of the COVID-19 lockdown, they were back in the kitchen, aghost kitchen, where they continued to cook and bake delivery orders forChef & The Bakerand sell wholesale baked goods through food delivery services like UberEats and DoorDash. After realizing that groceries were low in stores, they decided to also deliver unused groceries and supplies to those in need.
“You want to service [your customers] and make their day a little bit better because we were all suffering from lack of access to things,” Rosana said. “Sometimes, I would make deliveries during the first wave of lockdown, and I would talk through the window or the door, and people would be overjoyed to see me.”
The ghost kitchen now operates seven days a week and has 15 employees, most of whom worked for Rosana before. Reflecting on the ghost kitchen’s growth, Rosana said the pandemic taught her important lessons on how to adapt and stay flexible.
“[The pandemic] taught us a lot about ourselves and how you put yourself back together again,” Rosana said. “When I talk about the food industry or the restaurant business, we’re very resilient and very adaptable because a lot of people had to change their format overnight.”
Redefining her personal brand
Rosana used the pandemic as a time to step back and reevaluate her career. Her following had grown from her击败了博比·win, and she realized she had a brand people were interested in. She ramped up posting on herInstagramto show off her personality, who she is as a chef, and the dishes she likes to cook.
“All of my social media was always focused on pushing whatever business we had. But as much as people want to know about your restaurant, they want to know about you.” Rosana said. “I took a lot of time and effort thinking and talking to other business owners and consultants about ‘Who am I? What does a business under my name look like?’”
After the show, Rosana built a personal website, mainly focused on luxury catering for private events and gourmet catered boxes, such as tapas and charcuterie boxes. Rosana’s website is filled with personal touches like her tagline “Made by hand, with love,” an “About Chef Rosana” section, and outlets to connect with her over chat or on social media.
She then added on virtual cooking classes, which started off as a passion project, and now teaches in-person cooking classes in the Tampa Bay area, such as “Paella Master Class” and “The Art of Making Pasta.”
“I’m very passionate about teaching. Sometimes, when you have a restaurant, even though you want to do it, you don’t have the time,” Rosana said. “[The pandemic] allowed me the flexibility to do it and then really mold and hone [the classes].”
Looking forward, Rosana hopes to continue building her personal brand and digital presence. In addition to击败了博比·, she has since been featured onThe Today Showand inPeople en Español. She also recently redesigned and plans to relaunch her personal website.
While Rosana is happy with where击败了博比·大流行花了她的职业生涯,她没有完整y crossed out working on brick-and-mortar restaurants again and hopes to reopen a formal location of Chef & The Baker with her husband.
“You have to listen to what your customer wants and try to meet them where they are. We get the question on a daily basis, ‘Where are you?’” Rosana said. “We’re always looking for an opportunity to go back to a brick-and-mortar because we love the restaurant world.”
Words of wisdom
With a successful career spanning 20 years, Rosana is thankful to those who supported and inspired her throughout her career. As a result, she always makes an effort to treat her employees well and give back to organizations she cares about.
In addition to catering events and galas for charities, she donates financial resources whenever she can. Rosana encourages other business owners to aid their communities if they have the resources.
“You have to be present in your community,” Rosana said. “Success doesn’t come automatically. You have to build it. So as much as I work hard, I also give back.”
Another way Rosana gives back is helping out fellow chefs and restaurateurs in her community. She mentors other Latinx chefs and business owners, offering advice, feedback, and encouragement.
“We’re a tribe, and we have to stick with each other,” Rosana said. “If I don’t support like-minded people and people like me, we don’t get ahead. Success has to be shared.”
Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Rosana said she learned how to be a hard worker and overcome challenges to get her voice heard when she moved to the continental U.S. She encourages other Latinx business owners, regardless of where they are from, to hone their craft and take risks for ideas they are passionate about.
“What we all share [as Latinos] is that we’re all very passionate people,” Rosana said. “Whether we are in the restaurant business or the service industry, we work really hard. I think it’s ingrained in our DNA.”
Photos fromChef RosanaandChef & The Bakeron Yelp;editorial contributions by Leanna Feng
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