Community Highlights: Meet Jennifer Avancena of Calajo Catering

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Avancena.

Hi Jennifer, thanks for joining us today. We’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our story starts with family, culture and passion. Carlo and I are blessed with an enormous and tight-knit family where we are completely connected on how we experienced and thoroughly enjoyed family gatherings growing up. This led to our professions in hospitality and food. Between Carlo and myself, we’ve worked at over ten different hotels including Hilton Hotels, Marriott and various luxury boutique hotels. Finding ourselves jobless due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we took the opportunity of this time together to launch our own catering business.

Although Calajo Catering was conceptualized pre-pandemic however because of our opposite schedules, it was difficult to make time together to work on our dream. With the foundation that was laid out and understanding catering opportunities would not be lucrative in a pandemic, we moved to offering baked savory and sweet delicacies. Thanks to our community, social media, FilLed Market, American Exchange Market, collaborations, and new friends we connected with in the past year, we are grateful for the growth and progress we’ve made in just one year. Now with LA County opening up, we are proud to share that catering inquiries are growing which was our initial intention of our business. We’ve had two private dinners and a massive amount of requests for catering trays.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
It definitely hasn’t been easy with being short-staffed, equipment failures, power outages- but most especially balancing the many different responsibilities of a business owner. Currently, it’s just the two of us, and with the blessing of an influx of business- especially catering since it’s our main intention- it can be quite difficult to complete production when I’m also handling orders and customer service – in addition to thinking about scheduling popups, catering events, collaborations, and social media- while making sure we’re reaching our financial goals with sales and budgeting. Coming from the hospitality industry where it’s a corporate structure, my years of expertise was sales where my main responsibility was to make sure revenue was booked for the future – and that’s it. A year later, I’m still transitioning my mindset from always thinking ahead and having another team handle production to literally booking and cooking it – or in my case, baking it! It can be rough, yet we welcome these challenges because we are doing what we truly love where our hearts and minds are so full.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Calajo Catering?
Calajo Catering is connecting and building community through Filipinx-inspired cuisine through catering services + savory & sweet baked delicacies. Because culture is an important part of who we are, we want to share our culture of food and community with the world. And this includes UBE… because UBE IS OUR YAM! What is Ube you ask? Ube is a yam, root vegetable that is naturally purple in color from the Philippines. Its flavor is very unique and has been described as floral and nutty. Ube is lightly sweet which is one reason why it’s regularly used in Filipino desserts. Ube has several nutritional benefits including vitamins- especially Vitamin C- minerals and it’s rich in antioxidants; this includes anthocyanins giving it’s vibrant hue and can help reduce blood pressure and inflammation and protect against cancer and type 2 diabetes. Because it’s delicious in so many ways, I enjoy using Ube in non-traditional Filipino desserts such as cakes, cheesecakes, cakesicles, and more! We also incorporate it in our catering menus such as ube and potato salad or ube gratin.

As a purpose-driven organization, we believe community is an integral piece to the betterment of society. With both of us growing up with immigrant parents in an environment very different from the environment our parents grew up in, it was a constant battle between cultures, and through our mission, we are bridging these cultures through food and community. Our mission is to not only provide exceptional Filipinx cuisine but to also uplift our supporters by providing a memorable experience from menu planning to a seamless event day execution for each event our supporters plan.

We take pride in our business name as it expresses everything important to us: culture, food, family, community. Calajo (pronounced call-ah-joe) is from my mother’s native dialect, Ibaloi, in Benguet, Philippines. The phrase I would always hear at any gathering is “Calajo Mengan” which means “come and eat”. We would say this phrase to not only announce when it was time to eat but to also call on our late ancestors to eat with us. We invite everyone to come and eat with us at our table.

What was your favorite childhood memory?
My favorite childhood memories are mostly with my Grandma Rose. As tough as she was, I felt love like no other and learned the importance of culture, family, tradition, and community.

Carlo’s favorite childhood memory is the first time he learned how to really cook with hot dogs and rice; this is when he realized his talent of cooking.

Pricing:

• Buffet Catering starting at $40++ per person
• Family-Style Catering starting at $37++ per person
• Plated Catering starting at $35++ per person
• Ube Cheesecake Bars $26+ per dozen
• Ube Crinkle Cookies $19+ per dozen

Contact Info:

• Email: inquire@calajola.com
• Website: www.calajola.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/calajocateringla/?hl=en
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/calajocateringla/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t54myL4V9h4&t=17s
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/calajo-catering-santa-clarita-2
• Other: https://www.pinterest.com/calajocateringla/

Image Credits:
Bea Reyes Michelle Balingit Sabrina Velis