Today, we’d like to introduce you to Cynthia Muir.
Hi Cynthia, I’m so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
Hello, my name is Cynthia. I am from Lima, Peru, and I have been the chef and the owner of Exotic Gourmet Catering since Oct. 2022. My cooking and work journey really started at a very young age, 12 to be exact, working at my mom’s and family’s restaurants on weekends and school summer vacations. From the age of 19 to 22, I went to college, and I came to the USA to do six months of a work and travel program. When I came back to my country, I took over my mom’s restaurant and her chocolate business because she was moving here; so many years of learning and experiences.
At the age of 29, I became a mom, and with that, I decided to close the restaurant and start full time the chocolate business. I knew that I needed something that I could do at home and have time to take care of my baby. I was struggling at first, but I became a successful brand, “Chocolates Mapy,” in honor of my mom. After a couple of years, I decided to open a catering business, “Mapy Gourmet,” to expand my culinary experience, which was really very good with a lot of hard work with a daughter in my arms, but she was my motivation!
But after some years, in 2017, I decided to come and visit my mom (she had already been living here for ten years at that time). I came with my daughter, and we decided to stay for three months, without imagen that I would meet my current husband on that visit, we fall in love, and with that, I decided to leave my life and business in Peru and start over here. And after that, every single step was an even bigger challenge that was in my country, the language barrier, the culture, meeting new people, a lot of paperwork!
At that time, my daughter was seven years old, and for her, too, it was a really big change; I knew a little English. For her, it was very hard because she started school with zero understanding, but now, after seven years, she is in advanced classes, and she is an A student; I am so proud.
So, let’s start with how I started my business here. Well, in 2019, I created Exotic Gourmet chocolates, which were sold at farmers’ markets and to family members to get people to know me. That was good but not enough to support my new family also (I got married in 2018), so I decided to start a dessert catering business, doing dessert stations. It really became popular until the pandemic, and I closed the business. After that, I didn’t have any more options to look for a job, so I found one in an assisted living facility as a kitchen manager. I stayed there until everything go back to normal, and then I quit, and I reopen my business in Oct. 2021 but just with desserts.
After one year I really became very popular, and people started asking me for my food and asking me when I would start with a full catering service!? So I made another decision, and I started the process of do, menu, services, license, insurance, etc., and that is how, in Oct. 2022, Exotic Gourmet became a full-service catering, and our first event was for 400 guests!
Lol, some people asked me how you really can put together a business and events in such a short period of time; we’ll let me tell you, that is not as simple as it sounds. I came here with a lot of experience time, with a lot of already failures back in Peru. I am 41 years old, and I started when I was 12, so it is 29 years of doing what I love and learning; nothing happens magically; it is hard work, dedication, failure, and a lot of NO until someone says YES and believes in you!
But the most important part is you believe in yourself, are always open to learning new things, and are willing to change if necessary. I know Exotic Gourmet has so many years forward, and I can’t wait to have that journey!
Alright, let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what challenges have you had to overcome?
I think that small business owners are synonyms of struggles, lol. If you don’t have any, I think you are doing everything wrong. I think my first struggle was in my 20s already. I was a business owner, so no one took me seriously, and being a woman, even worse, no one believed that I really knew what I was doing. So many years of proving to others that I was capable of doing what I do, and when I thought that was over, well, brilliant me, I decided to come here and fall in love!
As a Latin person with poor English, open a business from scratch again! Lol. Well, my struggles here weren’t any more for my age now because I was from another country, learning the language, doing paperwork and everything in English, people underestimating and judging me, but because of all that, I did it even better, and also with almost cero help of my American husband, also He always was affray of someone going to hurt my feelings, and something he says stuff like, “are you sure you want to apply for that job, maybe you need to improve a little more your English before” (he had a good intension) but I responded well the worst thing that could happen is, that they are not going to hire me, so let’s do it, and see what happen.
I believe if you really are struggling with something, you should do it! Until you become a pro or close to that, I know in these seven years I learned so much English, because my husband doesn’t speak Spanish, so I didn’t have any other alternative! But I still think that I need to go to college here and improve it to the next level. I believe that we always need to keep learning, and we can take courses, read books, or anything that helps to improve our skills and use them for the growth of our business or our personal life.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar, what can you tell them about what you do?
I consider myself a food artist/chef, and at my catering company, we specialize in fusion cuisine & designed presentations. We dedicated so much time designing our station to match our food and the client’s theme event.
I am proud of what we delivered to each event with high-quality service and fresh ingredients; our team members and I take care of with a lot of passion and dedication every detail, giving our clients, not just food but a whole luxury experience all the services that set us apart, deluxe dessert, interacting stations, and, most importantly, Peruvian fusion cuisine. As Peruvians, our cuisine has a lot of influence on other cultures, such as Italian, Chinese, French, Spanish, and Latin American cuisine.
We’d love to hear what you think about risk-taking.
I have been taking risks all my life, I think because of that, I am where I am right known, I am a person that doesn’t wait for things to happen or wait for opportunities, I look for it.
When I opened my catering in 2022, it was a big risk. I didn’t know if my services and my unique food would be something that people would be interested in, but I realized that if I didn’t take that risk, I was never going to find out, so I decided to start with a lot of sponsorship events (free food), lets people try adventure flavors and let them decided what dishes like most and will be more popular, some people already knew about Peruvian food.
Other ones just try to see if they like it. At the end of the day, I know not every product is for everyone, so let’s just focus on the clients who really want something different. A lot of times, I thought, why not just cook what they know? I received many inquiries asking me if I do American cuisine, BBQ, or tacos, even if they are not on my online menu.
I knew it would be less risky and easier if I just did some popular food, but not me, so I decided not to do it and keep my food essence and stories like that. I have so many, I think that is 50/50 of changes to successes or failure on every risk that you will make, you will learn on any cases, also just to be clear I don’t take the risk just because.
I study all the possibilities, and building and strategy are important. In my beginning here in the USA, I didn’t ask for any loan to start my business. I started with a couple of bucks and then, little by little, grew and kept investing because I knew that I needed to build clients first and with a side job until I could afford to quit, but Cynthia, in her 20s, went crazy with bank loans and making so many mistakes, I learned! Everything goes with a plan and strategy.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.exoticgourmetcatering.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/exoticgourmetcaterer/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/egourmetstore
Image Credits
Jeff M. Burt
