Meet our Empresarios: Tita's Kitchen

Hacienda CDC’s Empresarios programming supports entrepreneurs to start, grow, and scale their businesses. Read more about our featured Empresario and learn about our amazing community of small business owners.

Business Name : Tita’s Kitchen

Area of Origin: Lima, Peru.

Significance of Name: "Tita" is how her younger sister started calling her since she was a baby because she couldn't pronounce "Hermanita" and after a while all of her cousins started to call her by the same name. Since Tita's Kitchen is a family oriented Food Truck, it only makes sense to name it after her family-given name.

Goals for Business: Tita’s goal is have a successful launch and acceptance from the community. She hopes to one day grow and expand her business to a location outside of the Portland Mercado and eventually have multiple locations throughout the North West.  

Tita’s Story

Meet Fabiola Chipoco a 28-year-old entrepreneur from Lima, Peru, and owner of the new Portland Mercado Food Truck: Tita’s Kitchen. Fabiola's story as an entrepreneur began early on thanks to her father's influence. As the oldest daughter of two, she always had an urge to get things done. She entered college at the age of 16 and graduated with a Digital Marketing and Advertising degree from a university in Peru. During her schooling, she began working with local businesses as an independent contractor in advertising and branding to make extra money. Little did she know that was the start of what was to become her first company. When she graduated, she got a full-time job at an advertising company while she continued to work independently with private clients. It was during her time at this job when she realized that she preferred the more intimate interactions of her side hustle versus the agency job. She explained that the difference in how the work gets done and the freedom of creativity is unmatched between both jobs. When working with smaller clients, she felt more listened to and with more space to propose unique and creative ideas that she had. 

After quitting her full-time job, she focused a lot more on her own company and eventually worked with up to 8 businesses simultaneously before deciding to drop everything and go! She wanted a change in her life; One with new ventures and opportunities where she could be herself and utilize her skills. At the age of twenty-three, she sold her car and used up her saving to move to explore the world and eventually settled in Miami, Florida, where she knew some friends. As always, Fabiola did not have trouble adapting to her new life. She utilized her talents and skills as a dancer to become a dance instructor and even performing in videos for famous musicians. She was creative and with a drive to be successful. Sadly, she never felt at home and always felt out of place. One day, thanks to a friend's recommendation, she decided to move to Portland, Oregon, with hopes of filling the void.

About Tita’s Kitchen

Titas Kitchen offers innovative, tasty, and healthy Peruvian food in the North West. They specialize in Peruvian cuisine and are influenced by traditional recipes and with a fresh touch of local ingredients to enhance or replace seasonal and foreign ingredients. 

Owner, Fabiola Chipoco, who is from Lima, Peru, says her inspiration behind the business is the idea of bringing the warmth and the sense of home that food brings to her and her family, to her whole community. Fabiola, who goes by the nickname “Tita” left Peru at the age of 23 to travel around the world. When she did she left behind two of the most important things in her life: her family and her home. Tita was lucky enough to meet amazing people and see new places during her travels, but nothing ever felt like home. Tita's Kitchen is her way of recreating the atmosphere, flavors, and traditions that she so dearly misses from Peru. The feeling of unity and the connection with family while sharing a meal was something that she could not feel anywhere else, so she wants to create it.  

Tita has always had a love for food and cooking. After arriving in Portland and seeing the diversity of foods from all over the world available, she felt inspired and urged to bring her culture to our table. Her venture in the food industry started thanks to the guidance of a well know Peruvian restaurant in Seattle, Washington, known as Don Luchos. Tita reached out to the business owner of Don Luchos and asked for a chance to meet him in person to ask him some questions. Thanks to his generosity, he helped her learn and perfect traditional Peruvian recipes while teaching her about the food industry. As a sort of apprentice, she grew knowledgeable enough to leap into starting her own business. A vision that started to manifest itself when she learned about the applications for the vacant Portland Mercado carts. She did not doubt in applying and expressing her vision and instantly became a reality.

Learn more about our Empresarios program and other businesses at the Portland Mercado.