Meet Nicole D. Carrasco | Full Time Mom & Culinary Enthusiast

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nicole D. Carrasco and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nicole D., we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
I have always loved food and design. When it came time to choose my career, I decided to pursue design first, but always kept food close to me. In my own time, I imagined designing my own food establishment and menu where it would be an accumulation of all the foods I love eating and I cooked my heart out. My husband and I did some traveling as well and our travels always revolved around food. Years later, my journey to parenthood and the pandemic gave me the push to finally put design aside and start my own food business. I wanted to still recreate the foods I love eating and have eaten during our travels but now with purpose; with my Catalina in mind. California will always be a part of her but our food will celebrate her Filipino and Mexican roots, done right using high quality ingredients and early techniques, so that she may never forget where she comes from. Masa is a word in both Tagalog and Spanish meaning dough and this is how Masa Catalina came to life.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
There are so many layers to be peeled and said in order to be able to answer this set of questions. In my experience, LA is a dense design and culinary playground that makes it challenging to create something new that would be interesting enough for the people to recognize. With that said, I believe Masa Catalina offers something that is both culturally familiar and new that you can taste and see in our brand. What I love about Mexican culture is that it is so much like the Filipino culture but different enough to keep it interesting and vice versa. I guess you can give credit to the Spanish who made it possible for this cultural phenomenon. In LA, both cultures are so predominant that many multi-racial families, like ours, are born but no one has ever dared to mix the two in their food or design. This could be a good thing or a bad thing. One of the most pleasant feedbacks I have heard since starting our business revolves around the appreciation of bringing the two cultures together and the feeling it brings them of recognition. People say “Hey that’s me and my family! I am so glad someone is finally bringing us (our culture) together so I don’t have to choose between the two.” On the other hand, I have also felt insecure in the sense that I don’t come from a Mexican background and that people may judge my food differently or not try it all. The same goes for my husband who helps me at some of our markets. We have to explain and justify where our brand comes from in terms of “I’m Filipino and he’s Mexican” and vice versa. Another layer we offer within the Filipino culture is bringing light to the different culinary dishes that are specific to the town where I am from: Batangas. Not many know that our food is also regional. Even after living in LA for more than 20 years, I do not know anyone who is offering Batangueno foods and flavors so imagine the delight we got when we started to offer them in our markets. The best outcome is when people can look past the culture differences, give us a try, and come out satisfied. We love seeing and hearing this when people try our tortillas, baked goods, and other culinary creations. Take the humble tortilla, it is a common staple in a Mexican household yet my in-laws, and many other Mexican families, have lost the art of making a proper tortilla. I think if one looks deep into the process growing corn, cooking and grinding the corn before it can be made into masa and into the tortilla on your table then they would find that it is a very intensive process that is not humble at all. I wanted to bring back the way it should be made, using organic and non-gmo kernels, and eaten and experience this process myself to give the tortilla its proper credit. I saw it as a blank canvas where it can be more than just a humble tortilla. People are really pleased with the different corn varieties we offer along with the designs we have made showcasing these varieties. This same consideration also applies for when we make our baked goods and other cuisines. We use the best ingredients that we can find and make it our own. We also love working with other artists, vendors, and farmers and highlight their contribution to our brand. We learned and we are still learning that this is how communities are built and that connecting with people is such an incredible mutual feeling!

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would probably start with what events or food events are happening in LA from concerts to art installations to festivals. If we were to start the week on a Monday, I would probably ease them in and start in our hood: The San Fernando Valley. We will have breakfast at Joe’s Café in Granada Hills and then go Lake Balboa to ride a bike and maybe the swan boats. We will visit The Japanese Garden on the other side of the park and maybe have tea if they are offering it that day. The day will end at either La Corona down the street where we can have drinks and Mexican Food or at Barrio Fiesta for some Filipino grub. For Tuesday, I would take them to Downtown LA where we could take a food tour and later stop and eat at Grand Central Market where we would split up into groups and get different market offerings from carnitas, ramen, and buko pie and reconvene to share our finds. The next stop would be at The Broad to see the latest art installations. If it’s still there, I would sign up again to see Yayoi Kusama’s Inifnity Room. We make a quick stop at The Disney Concert Hall and if we are lucky enough to get reservations, dinner would take place at either Otium or Patina. Wednesday would be dedicated to Downtown again. There’s just so much to see and taste and one day is not enough! Maybe we have breakfast at Eggslut and then take a Japanese Cooking class. For lunch, we would go to Guelaguetza Restaurant and have some horchata, chapulines, memelas, and mole. It doesn’t really matter how many of us are eating but we always seem to feeding a crowd. We would then make our way to K-Town and to have K-BBQ for dinner. It’s hard to decide where but it would probably be between Sun Nong Dan or Dang Sung Sa. Dessert would be at Oakobing for some bingsu. Thursday would be dedicated to a theme park like Disneyland. We would start at California Adventures and work our way to Disneyland. We always have lunch at The French Quarter and again, if we made proper reservations, we would be having dinner at Blue Bayou Restaurant. If there is a fair happening around Orange County then we would stop there on a Friday. It’s always fun to see the giant and wild food offerings they have. If not, maybe we head on towards the San Gabriel Valley. I imagined that on the way there, we make time to have some birria from Birreria Don Boni to have some birria de chivo (goat). Arriving at San Gabriel Valley, we would hang out at The Huntington Library during the day and visit The Arboretum at night if there is a light festival happening. Dinner would be between Din Tai Fung or Dong Po. For Saturday, we are back again to Downtown LA. We hop on the subway to Grand Central Station, maybe people watch for a little bit, and then check out Olvera Street for history, art, and food. The last time we were there, pre-pandemic, we went for Tacolandia and for the Mole Festival. We would then go to Little Tokyo to visit shops and galleries and of course, eat ramen at either Orochon or Daikokuya. Sunday, being the last day, would be slower paced. We would have Filipino breakfast at either Manila Sunset or Lilian’s Bread and Sweets before we head to different Farmers Markets. We would start at Studio City then Mar Vista and end at Hollywood. I have always wanted to do a Hollywood tour to see celebrity homes and I think that is exactly what we will do after the market visits. Finally, we end the day back to the valley just in time for dinner either at Rincome Restaurant or Dome Pochana. As I have said to many before, we travel for food.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
First of all, it would be impossible to list all of the people, group, and events that have attributed to Masa Catalina as there are so many and if I somehow forget to mention you here, please know that you are not taken for granted. I begin with a cliché but as my immediate family has always been my foundation, they deserve the biggest shout out. Shout out to my husband and my daughter, you mean the world to me and Masa Catalina would literally be non-existent without the two of you. Shout out to my sister, brother, other family members, and friends who have given voluntary support in hours of free labor, free food, free child care, and more, I thank you. Shout out to my team, to Hadley Tomicki of LATaco, KTLA, Gustavo Arellano, and KCRW for giving me the push to bring Masa Catalina out to the public. Shout out to Netflix, Youtube, and Masienda for providing endless resource of inspiration, techniques, and goods that otherwise would be hard to come by. Shout out to the Farmer’s Markets who gave me a chance to have Masa Catalina grow into what it is now. Shout out to Sydney LaCom for her creative talent and kind heart that brought me to ShoutOut LA. Finally, to end it in another cliché that proves to be true, shout out to all the patrons who gave our food a chance to nourish them and their families.

Website: masacatalina.com (under construction)

Instagram: @masacatalina2021

Facebook: Masa Catalina

Other: https://www.lataco.com/squid-game-tortillas/

Image Credits
Andres Carrasco