Daily Inspiration: Meet Carla Arce De Callejas

Today we’re excited to be connecting with Carla Arce De Callejas again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Carla , thanks for joining us again. Just to level set a bit for folks who may have missed our last interview together, can you briefly introduce yourself?
My name is Carla Arce de Callejas and I am a Chef. I have worked in several restaurants in Orange County and Los Angeles. I have been a part of many great projects and opportunities such as Ducks in Tux 2022, the 2022 winner of The Taste of Orange and two restaurant openings. One of those restaurants being within in a hotel in Santa Monica. You can also find me in a small section of Orange County Magazine KickAss Women edition 2022. However, if you know me or of me, you will know me best as, The Chilean Peasant.

The Chilean Peasant, for a time, was my small business. I sold Chilean style empanadas, salsas y mas (and more) during the pandemic out of my one-bedroom apartment. Due to everything being closed, it was a way to not only keep myself afloat and working but it gave those who food ventured a chance to try my food. The food I wanted to make the way I wanted to make it. No other chefs to judge, interfere or give me their opinion on what will sell and what wont. I didn’t have to hear “empanadas don’t belong on the menu” , “empanadas are too ethnic for the area” (whatever that means).

Nevertheless, the best part for me was, I was naturally different. You don’t hear much (or if anything, nothing at all) about Chilean food. At least not in Orange County. So, when I started doing pop-ups as The Chilean Peasant, I set myself apart from other food vendors. I wasn’t just another baked goods stand at the pop-up market. I had savory food: empanadas, salsas, homemade bread, alfajores and I would sell out. Every time.

Word spread more and more and eventually I got into coffee shops. My first being Golden State Coffee Roasters in Placentia. I was a feature vendor for them for a few months. Then I was founded by Buenas Coffee located in Costa Mesa. I vendored solely for Buenas for almost a year and then I received an opportunity to become an Executive Sous Chef in 2021. I paused The Chilean Peasant to further my career as a chef. Eventually I did achieve my goal in becoming an Executive Chef however my health declined from being over-worked and overly stressed. In addition my father, who had recently survived an aorta dissection, was declining in health at the same time. With a heavy heart I resigned from the restaurant, fell back on the support of The Chilean Peasant so that I could work from home and spent my time recovering but also to spend what would be the last few months (I didn’t know I had) with my dad. There was always hope that he would make it however my dad passed away in August of 2022.

If you look back at my first article with Voyager, my dad was my Chilean Peasant and with him gone; it wasn’t the same. I shut down the Chilean Peasant. I took down my website, I put “temporarily closed” on all my other social media platforms and The Chilean Peasant has been untouched since then.

That is currently how things are going as far as The Chilean Peasant is concerned. This probably isn’t the ending we all wanted. It’s definitely not the one I thought I would have. Chilean Peasant had really reached a point where I was heavily considering transitioning into brick and mortar. I was producing too much for my little apartment oven and my sales were steady. However, life happens.

Lately, I have gone back and forth with the idea of reopening. Sometimes I miss it and other times I am overwhelmed with the emotions of anxiety, depression and this sense of “I’m not ready”, but I am working through it because I really don’t want Chilean Peasant to end here. I know its potential. More so, I know my potential. I think when the time is right, Chilean Peasant will be there (once again). I mean I put “temporarily closed.” If I was really done with it all, I would have just taken Chilean Peasant off the face of the earth, but I didn’t. Why? I don’t know, but anyways, I think, when the time is right, I will be flipping a sign on a window: “The Chilean Peasant is open.”

Alright, so our main goal today is to give our audience an update on what you have been up to since our last conversation. We’d love to hear how things are going and what you are most looking forward to or excited about these days.
The Chilean Peasant is still stagnant as far as operations go but, I still make empanadas. I make them at home, and I have even made them for a Chef’s Special at work. Chilean Peasant is still very much a part of me even though I am not publicly active with it.

I mentioned that I go back and forth with reopening The Chilean Peasant and a lot of that hesitation was coming from not being in a good place. Chilean Peasant ended traumatically for me and then I was just hustling in my career that I never got the chance to really think about operating again nor was I ready to.

Now, I am in a good place. I am in a working environment that has balance which has greatly improved my personal life. I finally find myself in an era of healing, stability and I have this room to breathe. It has given me more clarity of where I want my future to go, and I would like for The Chilean Peasant to be there.

Before, I was looking at how The Chilean Peasant ended. I want to start looking more at how much potential it had and look more on the positive aspects of my short time as a small home business owner. Really, Chilean Peasant wasn’t doing too bad, and it gives me a spark of hope.

So much hope that I’ve started researching how to construct a proper business plan. I’ve been given the advice to go to other small business and see what they have done to make their business come to life and I plan to do so. I have even been looking at, what I think, I would want Chilean Peasant to look like: property, location, the menu, the decor, etc. Of course, there’s more to running a business than just what kind of counter tops will look best but you catch my drift. The idea is in the oven, it’s baking, and that’s a big step.

The Chilean Peasant won’t open tomorrow, it won’t open next year or the year after that. I don’t have an opening date or a time frame. I really want things to be in place before anything else because there is always that “what if this doesn’t work.” So, I want to take my time and really do things right so that there are no “what ifs.” It is all uphill from here and I am excited to see what the possibilities are for The Chilean Peasant.

Alright, so let’s do something a bit more fast-paced and lighthearted. We call this our lightning round and we’ll ask you a few quick questions.

• Favorite Movie: The Emperors New Groove
• Favorite Book: The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Washington Irving
• Favorite TV Show: Man…I really can’t choose..but it would be between That 70s Show, New Girl and The Office.
• Favorite Band or Artist: Latin Jazz Artist, Poncho Sanchez
• Sweet or Savory: Savory
• Mountains or Beach: Mountains
• Favorite Sport (to watch): Tennis
• Favorite Sport (to play): Tennis (I played for 13 years!)
• Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): I played tennis and I also ran sprints in track
• As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: I really wanted to be Indiana Jones haha or become a paleontologists.
• French Fries or Onion Rings: French Fries (with ranch)
• Chuck Rhodes or Bobby Axelrod: I have no idea haha I think these are TV characters but I am not familiar with the shows (I had to google them)
• Favorite Cartoon growing up: Snoopy from The Peanuts
• Favorite Childhood movie: The Last Unicorn
• Favorite Breakfast Food: In Chile, there is a dish called Huevos a la Ostra. Chilean Translation: Prairie Oyster. It is a raw egg whisked and “cooked” in lemon juice, seasoned with salt and pepper and eaten with Pan Amasado (Chilean Country bread).

What do you want people to remember about you and your brand? What are some of things that you feel are most important, unique, special, etc?
Looking back on Chilean Peasant, I remember being so adamant about showing others what Chilean food is. When I first started out, I made sure to always emphasize that I was selling Chilean style empanadas because I didn’t want to be put in a box. I wanted people to learn and know that there is more than just Argentina or Peruvian (etc.) empanadas. Chilean Peasant gave me that opportunity to speak about my culture that I grew up with. To educate on diversity even though the product is similar to others. “Yes, it is an empanada” but this is how it’s different.

Being given the chance to do articles, like Voyager, I have been able to talk about Chile, its cuisine and culture. I have been able to talk about my journey and Chilean Peasant has allowed me to express my passion for Chilean food. It has also given me the ability to grow and explore other cultural findings like making Chilean empanadas but with a more savory Mexican filling. Fillings such as Chicken en Salsa Verde, Chilorio, Mole, etc. I may not have been on the food scene for very long but I’d to think that I had a small impact and represented my ethnicities to the best of my abilities. That to me is most important outcome from The Chilean Peasant.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: @carliiitas_waay

Image Credits
Nick Belohlavy, photographer