Owner: Dilsa Lugo

Website: www.loscilantroscatering.com

Email: loscilantrossf@yahoo.com

Phone: (510) 230-7350

Where to Find Us: Los Cilantros is coming to Berkeley Bowl soon!

Facebook & Twitter: coming soon!

Catering: Yes! Click here to learn more about the catering program of La Cocina.

About Los Cilantros: Dilsa who’s from Cuernavaca, Morelos has been in contact with food since she was a girl. She comes from a large family where eating all together at home happened at least twice a day. Being from a town, she grew up with a garden where they grew corn, pumpkins, beans, lemons, mangoes, guayabas, green beans, chilies, and more. Her family did this for the love of seeing their food all the way from seed to table but also to help out economically. The passion Dilsa has for cooking and for fresh ingredients comes from there—from when she was a little girl helping her mom with the harvest. When she went to college she studied horticulture and learned a lot about pesticides and the harm they cause people and the environment.

When Dilsa came to Berkeley it was very exciting for her to discover the organic food movement—a movement that’s only recently beginning in Mexico. She realized that there weren’t many Mexican food places that had these issues in mind and that offered alternatives that were healthier for people and the environment. This is what inspired her to start a Mexican food business using local, seasonal ingredients that are organic whenever possible.

Los Cilantros is a catering and events company whose mission is never to lose authenticity and that people always enjoy the flavors of food that is simply but carefully prepared using the best ingredients available.

Owner: Dionne Knox

Website: http://zellassoulfulkitchen.com/

Email: catering@zellassoulfulkitchen.com

Phone: (510) 532-6652

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Zellassoulfulkitchen?ref=ts

Where to Find Us: Whole Foods – Noe Valley

Twitter: @zellakitchen

Catering: Yes! Click here to learn more about the catering program of La Cocina.

About Zella’s Soulful Kitchen: It’s said that when you’re born you come into the world knowing exactly what you’re supposed to do with your life. Due to numerous distractions, most of us take detours on our journeys spending quite a lot of time trying to discover our way back to that knowingness. At the young age of 8 years old, Chef Dionne Knox remembers spending most of her time in the kitchen with her grandmother, Zella, cooking meals and baking delicious desserts. Zella was a dynamic chef known for cooking everything from scratch. To ensure the best flavors in her cooking, Zella grew fresh vegetables in her garden, raised chickens for fresh eggs, made her own jam, baked bread every day and churned her own butter.

Zella’s ability to nourish her family extended beyond feeding them. The family regularly came together around the kitchen table to prepare fresh ingredients and share their lives to develop the closeness and intimacy that comes from preparing and sharing a meal together. The idea of “family” was extended to guests entering Zella’s home who were fed and treated with warmth, graciousness and a meal in the tradition of southern hospitality.

Honoring her legacy, Dionne followed in her grandmother’s footsteps and created a catering company named Zella’s Soulful Kitchen in 2005. As a program participant at La Cocina, Dionne grew her business creating menus by sourcing ingredients from local farmers and taking care to hand make the delicious foods she learned to make as a child. Clients enjoyed her healthy take on Southern Food at weddings, dinner parties, business meetings and in the comfort of their own homes.