Executive Director: Caleb Zigas
Caleb was accidentally hired as an assistant pastry chef at Ruppert’s Restaurant, in his hometown of Washington DC, when he was 16 years old, and hasn’t left the kitchen since. He has worked dish lines at national chains, service counters for independent butcher shops and front of the house for some of the best restaurants in the country (and some of the worst too). After graduating from the University of Michigan with degrees in English and Globalization and Culture, Caleb interned with ProMujer in El Alto Bolivia, learning about microfinance in its infancy and bringing those programming lessons to bear at La Cocina when it opened its doors in 2005.
Since joining La Cocina, Caleb has had a hand in shaping the incubator program as it has achieved national recognition. Caleb’s work on the program curriculum and social entrepreneurship innovation has been celebrated by the Hitachi Foundation when they named him a Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneur and by Inc. Magazine’s recognition as one of 5 Community Organizers making a difference. More recently, Caleb was behind La Cocina’s San Francisco Street Food Festival and Conference which ultimately led to involvement in the legislation changes that brought increased mobile vending opportunities to San Francisco. He has been named one of San Francisco’s Tastemakers by 7×7 Magazine, though he might be as proud that before that he was named Best Waiter in San Francisco. Bilingual, a trained diversity leader, HACCP Certified and a California Food Safety Manager, Caleb’s combination of food industry experience and commitment to social justice is what helps defines La Cocina, recently named 2011 Best Small Businesses by the San Francisco Bay Gardian.
Caleb brings a love of food and a passion for social justice to La Cocina and a belief that everyone deserves an opportunity to make a living doing what they love to do.
contact: (415) 824-2729, ext. 304
email: caleb@lacocinasf.org
favorite foods: chicken soup, steamed pork buns, molletes and nearly anything with miso.
Programs Manager: Leticia Landa
Leticia learned about La Cocina in her last week of college when she read an article about El Huarache Loco in The New York Times. After moving to San Francisco to work at a foundation she visited La Cocina’s Ferry Plaza Farmers Market booth a couple of times and decided it was an organization she wanted to volunteer for. Coincidentally, she met Valeria (the Executive Director at the time) at a Holiday Party and instead of becoming a volunteer she began as a staff member in February 2008.
Leticia studied Anthropology at Harvard and has a background international nonprofit work–she has lived in rural Northern India and rural Southwestern China working and studying agricultural poverty and its effects on women. She also completed the first year of culinary training at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris and worked on the line at Jeffrey’s Restaurant in Austin, Texas where she grew up. She is fluent in Spanish and French and (increasingly less) conversant in Mandarin Chinese.
Since joining La Cocina, Leticia has been named one of San Francisco’s Tastemakers by 7×7 Magazine and was named a Yoshiyama Young Entrepreneur by the Hitachi Foundation for her work on the program curriculum and social entrepreneurship. As Programs Manager, Leticia oversees the Mobile Foods project and the Business Incubator and works with staff to set goals with all entrepreneurs around business growth and access to capital and market opportunities.
Leticia brings a passion for the kitchen to La Cocina and a true belief in the power of small food-base businesses in transforming people’s lives.
contact: (415) 824-2729, ext. 306
email: leticia@lacocinasf.org
favorite foods: chilaquiles, quiche and the perfect brownie
Kitchen and Facilities Manager: Matt Skov
Matt oversees the kitchen to ensure that the program participants are working in optimum conditions. With extensive experience as a chef, general manager and restaurant owner, he provides kitchen guidance and technical assistance to La Cocina’s many businesses and commercial users alike. Matt also works with La Cocina’s caterers to fine tune their operations. He helps guide our culinary curriculum and makes sure that everything is working properly in our spacious commercial kitchen.
After receiving degrees from UC Davis and the California Culinary Academy, Matt spent time working his way up the cooking ranks at Miss Pearls Jam House and Silks before spending five years at Campton Place Hotel. Next stop was Colorado, where he was executive chef and general manager of an award winning Southwestern restaurant. Missing his native San Francisco, he returned home to become a partner in Ella’s Restaurant and Blue Fog Market, artisan corner stores which carry products from some of La Cocina’s businesses. Matt is also a partner in a street food business in Guadalajara, Mexico and is passionate about formalizing street food businesses in San Francisco.
Matt is almost fluent in Spanish and loves working with entrepreneurs with a passion for turning their love of food into successful businesses.
contact:(415) 824-2729 x. 302
email: matt@lacocinasf.org
favorite foods:tacos al pastor, sushi, caramel with sea salt and anything with BACON
Marketing and Communication Coordinator: Margarita Rojas
Margarita provides technical assistance in the area of marketing to La Cocina’s program participants. She facilitates access to market opportunities and assists them in launching and growing their food businesses. Margarita is also responsible for La Cocina’s marketing and communications strategies with our website, newsletters, and promotional materials. Lastly she manages all of La Cocina’s retail sales.
Margarita grew up in Medellin, Colombia. She studied business administration from Eafit University in Medellin and also holds a master in marketing from the same university. After working three years in marketing and sales for the consumer package good industry in her hometown, she moved to San Francisco and has been living in the city since then.
She is a strong believer in creating local sustainable businesses that benefit themselves and their community. She enjoys “homemade food” and traditional dishes and truly believes that people who create them haven’t been discovered yet and that they definitely will give an innovate taste on the food scene.
She wants to spread the word by letting people of San Francisco discover these passionate and talented entrepreneurs that bring authentic food to United States. Margarita is convinced that one that once you taste it, the flavor will stay in your mouth forever.
She brings a passion for marketing and food and believes that just like her, everyone should be doing what they love to do!
contact:(415) 824-2729, ext. 305
emai:l margarita@lacocinasf.org
Favorite foods:Bandeja paisa, pineapple rice and all kind of desserts. I love chocolate!
Mobile Food Associate: Daniella Sawaya
Daniella’s love of food stems from early days spent helping her father and grandmother cook traditional Middle Eastern and Latin American cuisine, as well as impromptu eating contests at family parties. From an early age, these experiences instilled in her a passion for cooking, a willingness to try anything, and a firm belief in the power of food to bring together individuals, families and communities.
She received a Bachelor’s degree in Architecture from UC Berkeley, with an emphasis on Design and Urbanism in Developing Countries. Daniella worked with the Foundation for Sustainable Development in Cochabamba, Bolivia, improving accessibility at a farm for children with disabilities. She also worked on a slum-upgrade project in the Mathare River Valley in Nairobi Kenya, in which she collaborated with university students, a local NGO, and the community to propose plans for community infrastructure, housing, and river rehabilitation.
Combining her background in urban studies and her love of international fare, Daniella has wholeheartedly embraced La Cocina’s advocacy for street food vending. She believes that street food offers some of the most delicious and authentic dishes of a place and, as an integrated part of the urban fabric, offers a vital market opportunity for entrepreneurs.
Daniella is fluent in Spanish and Italian, and conversant in Portuguese. She also paints a mean fresco.
contact: (415) 824-2729, ext. 303
email:daniella@lacocinasf.org
Favorite Foods:Macaroni and cheese, runny egg yolk, maduros, and curry (from every part of the world)
Social Entrepreneurship Manager: Deepa Philips
Deepa was raised among people who express their love for one another with food. She is Malaysian, Portuguese, and Indian, but her family also spent time in the Middle East and Latin America, embedding in her a deep and passionate relationship to exploring diverse cuisines and a willingness to try (almost!) anything once. Deepa’s love affair for cooking, eating, and sharing food expanded when she got involved in food systems work and anti-hunger organizing– she also has experience writing and facilitating curricula among teenagers on community building, social entrepreneurship, and microbusiness development.
Deepa completed her BA in International Relations at Manhattan College, and holds a Masters’ in Public Health from Columbia University, where her concentration was on Urbanism and the Built Environment. Deepa’s graduate thesis explored the potential of healthy street food to increase access among food insecure adolescents. She has taken amateur cooking classes at the French Culinary Institute and (secretly) pretends she is on a live cooking show while preparing food at home.
Deepa has traveled to 27 countries and is now a New Yorker building new bridges on the West Coast. She manages the La Cocina kiosk at Ferry Plaza.
contact: (415) 824-2729, ext. 308
email: deepa@lacocinasf.org
Favorite foods: Pastelitos, fish tacos, potato bhaji, anything BBQ’d
Market Associate: China Langford
China spent her childhood in the mountains of Western North Carolina eating brown rice, nori, and umeboshi and homeschooling in the small natural foods store where her mother worked. As if that wasn’t campy enough, her summers were spent at the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School in Maine where her father worked as a chef, making fresh milled whole grain flour bread daily and teaching the benefits of whole foods to the Outward Bound students.
China moved to CA as a teenager and has worked in health food stores and various restaurants from Sonoma to Seattle to Idaho and now back to SF where she currently runs the Farmer’s Market booth for La Cocina at the Saturday Ferry Plaza Market. She also works for Parisa Teas, a chai company, as a brew master and bottle washer extraordinaire.
She is currently attending City College of San Francisco studying film photography and is pursuing her life long love of making music in her spare time. China is overjoyed to be a part of La Cocina where she is daily inspired by the dedication and creativity of the people who run their businesses there, as well as working at the market and being part of the local and sustainable food movement.
Favorite foods: almost anything pickled, collared greens, fried okra
email: china@lacocinasf.org
Development and Events Associate: Azalea Perez Olivares
A recent east coast transplant, Azalea’s love affair with food was instilled in her from a very young age by her numerous and ever-expanding Mexican family. Early childhood memories include endless hours spent around the dinner table and spur of the moment weekend trips from her home in New York to Maine for lobster or Boston for clam chowdah.
Azalea began her undergraduate studies in Switzerland, indulging in the country’s fine cheese and chocolate selection, and eventually graduated from New York University with a degree in Communications.
After working for several years within marketing, events and finance, Azalea’s wanderlust kicked in and she soon found herself teaching English to young adults in Thailand. It was during this time that she realized her true calling was that which she had always loved–food.
Azalea completed her Masters in Food Studies degree from NYU and is eager to put all of her new-found knowledge into action at La Cocina as the Events and Development Coordinator.
She is fluent in Spanish, English and is conversant in French, Italian and Thai.
Azalea is well-aware of the obstacles facing immigrant entrepreneurs and women as a whole. She brings a strong desire to help others, her own self-confessed naive belief in her power to change the world and an insatiable appetite.
contact: (415) 824-2729, ext. 301
email: azalea@lacocinasf.org
Favorite Foods: sashimi (or raw meat of any kind really), albondigas, bahn mi, mushrooms