La Casita Kitchen
The taste of home in a pocket
A Cuban-Venezuelan food brand handcrafting frozen empanadas and tequeños in Halifax — six flavours, each one rooted in a real recipe from back home. Atlantic Canada's only frozen Latin American food makers.
La Casita Kitchen
The taste of home in a pocket
A Cuban-Venezuelan food brand handcrafting frozen empanadas and tequeños in Halifax — six flavours, each one rooted in a real recipe from back home. Atlantic Canada's only frozen Latin American food makers.
La Casita Kitchen
The taste of home in a pocket
A Cuban-Venezuelan food brand handcrafting frozen empanadas and tequeños in Halifax — six flavours, each one rooted in a real recipe from back home. Atlantic Canada's only frozen Latin American food makers.
Our Rooted Tale
A little house, built far from home
In Cuba, Vanessa spent ten years as an environmental analyst. She was good at her work. She had colleagues, a career, a sense of where things were going. Then she immigrated to Canada — and the path she had expected closed quietly behind her.
Language is a threshold that skilled professionals rarely expect to find so high. She spoke Spanish fluently. English was coming. But walking into Halifax's professional world with a decade of expertise and an accent meant starting over, from the outside. She worked in a call centre. She trained as an esthetician. She did what needed doing.
She considers this as a chapter they got through and learned something from.
The idea of a food business had been at the edge of her mind for a while — the thought that the skills she had weren't written on any credential but were real. That cooking, specifically, was something she could build on. She had been feeding her friends for years. Alex, a Venezuelan engineer who had been in Halifax longer, had seen it firsthand. When she finally said, "I want to do something that is mine" — he didn't hesitate.
From Havana to Halifax, with two suitcases
A pocket full of home
Learning what they didn't know
Life-changing Box
Our Rooted Tale
A little house, built far from home
In Cuba, Vanessa spent ten years as an environmental analyst. She was good at her work. She had colleagues, a career, a sense of where things were going. Then she immigrated to Canada — and the path she had expected closed quietly behind her.
Language is a threshold that skilled professionals rarely expect to find so high. She spoke Spanish fluently. English was coming. But walking into Halifax's professional world with a decade of expertise and an accent meant starting over, from the outside. She worked in a call centre. She trained as an esthetician. She did what needed doing.
She considers this as a chapter they got through and learned something from.
The idea of a food business had been at the edge of her mind for a while — the thought that the skills she had weren't written on any credential but were real. That cooking, specifically, was something she could build on. She had been feeding her friends for years. Alex, a Venezuelan engineer who had been in Halifax longer, had seen it firsthand. When she finally said, "I want to do something that is mine" — he didn't hesitate.
From Havana to Halifax, with two suitcases
A pocket full of home
Learning what they didn't know
Life-changing Box
Our Rooted Tale
A little house, built far from home
In Cuba, Vanessa spent ten years as an environmental analyst. She was good at her work. She had colleagues, a career, a sense of where things were going. Then she immigrated to Canada — and the path she had expected closed quietly behind her.
Language is a threshold that skilled professionals rarely expect to find so high. She spoke Spanish fluently. English was coming. But walking into Halifax's professional world with a decade of expertise and an accent meant starting over, from the outside. She worked in a call centre. She trained as an esthetician. She did what needed doing.
She considers this as a chapter they got through and learned something from.
The idea of a food business had been at the edge of her mind for a while — the thought that the skills she had weren't written on any credential but were real. That cooking, specifically, was something she could build on. She had been feeding her friends for years. Alex, a Venezuelan engineer who had been in Halifax longer, had seen it firsthand. When she finally said, "I want to do something that is mine" — he didn't hesitate.
From Havana to Halifax, with two suitcases
A pocket full of home
Learning what they didn't know
Life-changing Box
BestSeller Spotlight
The flavours people keep coming back for
Piccadillo Cubano Empanada
Ground beef, olive, and raisin. It sounds like an unusual combination until you try it — and then it tastes like something you've always known.
Piccadillo is one of Cuba's most traditional dishes, and Vanessa's version doesn't dress it up or soften it for a new audience. Sweet and savoury at once, built from a recipe that has been made the same way for generations. Cubans who've found their way to Halifax tend to recognize it before they've finished their first bite.
It's the one that new customers often don't order first. Then someone tells them to. Then it becomes their regular.
Halloumi & Caramelized Onion Empanada
The vegetarian bestseller. And the one that consistently surprises people who thought they were playing it safe.
Vanessa sources the halloumi locally — firm, salty, the kind that holds its shape in heat. The caramelized onion slows everything down, sweet against the salt, soft against the chew of the pastry. The combination is quieter than the meat fillings but lands harder than people expect.
People often arrive intending to order the chicken — the safe choice, as Vanessa calls it — and leave with a bag of these. That's the usual order of events.
Tequeños
For months, Alex's regulars at the farmers market asked the same question every Saturday: "When are you going to have them frozen?" He heard it so often it became a kind of running joke. Then, finally, an answer.
Venezuelan cheese rolls — crispy outside, molten with cheese inside, the kind of thing that disappears from a plate before it cools down. Alex became known at the market for them before they were even available to take home. Now they are.
They've only just launched frozen. They will almost certainly be the bestseller by the end of the year.
BestSeller Spotlight
The flavours people keep coming back for
Piccadillo Cubano Empanada
Ground beef, olive, and raisin. It sounds like an unusual combination until you try it — and then it tastes like something you've always known.
Piccadillo is one of Cuba's most traditional dishes, and Vanessa's version doesn't dress it up or soften it for a new audience. Sweet and savoury at once, built from a recipe that has been made the same way for generations. Cubans who've found their way to Halifax tend to recognize it before they've finished their first bite.
It's the one that new customers often don't order first. Then someone tells them to. Then it becomes their regular.
Halloumi & Caramelized Onion Empanada
The vegetarian bestseller. And the one that consistently surprises people who thought they were playing it safe.
Vanessa sources the halloumi locally — firm, salty, the kind that holds its shape in heat. The caramelized onion slows everything down, sweet against the salt, soft against the chew of the pastry. The combination is quieter than the meat fillings but lands harder than people expect.
People often arrive intending to order the chicken — the safe choice, as Vanessa calls it — and leave with a bag of these. That's the usual order of events.
Tequeños
For months, Alex's regulars at the farmers market asked the same question every Saturday: "When are you going to have them frozen?" He heard it so often it became a kind of running joke. Then, finally, an answer.
Venezuelan cheese rolls — crispy outside, molten with cheese inside, the kind of thing that disappears from a plate before it cools down. Alex became known at the market for them before they were even available to take home. Now they are.
They've only just launched frozen. They will almost certainly be the bestseller by the end of the year.
BestSeller Spotlight
The flavours people keep coming back for
Piccadillo Cubano Empanada
Ground beef, olive, and raisin. It sounds like an unusual combination until you try it — and then it tastes like something you've always known.
Piccadillo is one of Cuba's most traditional dishes, and Vanessa's version doesn't dress it up or soften it for a new audience. Sweet and savoury at once, built from a recipe that has been made the same way for generations. Cubans who've found their way to Halifax tend to recognize it before they've finished their first bite.
It's the one that new customers often don't order first. Then someone tells them to. Then it becomes their regular.
Halloumi & Caramelized Onion Empanada
The vegetarian bestseller. And the one that consistently surprises people who thought they were playing it safe.
Vanessa sources the halloumi locally — firm, salty, the kind that holds its shape in heat. The caramelized onion slows everything down, sweet against the salt, soft against the chew of the pastry. The combination is quieter than the meat fillings but lands harder than people expect.
People often arrive intending to order the chicken — the safe choice, as Vanessa calls it — and leave with a bag of these. That's the usual order of events.
Tequeños
For months, Alex's regulars at the farmers market asked the same question every Saturday: "When are you going to have them frozen?" He heard it so often it became a kind of running joke. Then, finally, an answer.
Venezuelan cheese rolls — crispy outside, molten with cheese inside, the kind of thing that disappears from a plate before it cools down. Alex became known at the market for them before they were even available to take home. Now they are.
They've only just launched frozen. They will almost certainly be the bestseller by the end of the year.
Meet the Founders
Environmental analyst & Industrial engineer
Vanessa & Alex
They are very good friends who decided to build something together. That's the simplest way to say it.
Vanessa is from Cuba. She worked for ten years as an environmental analyst before immigrating to Canada, then spent years doing what immigrants often have to do — rebuilding from the outside in, taking whatever work was available, staying patient with a version of her life that didn't quite fit yet. She runs La Casita Kitchen full-time. She also has a daughter. The two things happen in the same days, because they have to.
Alex is from Venezuela. He has a background in industrial engineering and still works in manufacturing — La Casita Kitchen is his second commitment, not his first. But you wouldn't know it by how present he is. He's the one at the market every Saturday. The one people stop to tell: "I come here every week just for these." He shows up for that.
They started this business without fully knowing how to run a business. They've learned most of it in the process of doing it — the sourcing, the commercial kitchen logistics, the packaging regulations, the difference between being busy and actually growing. They're still learning. They say so freely, which is probably why the people around them trust them.
What they knew from the start, and what hasn't changed, is the recipe. That part came from home. It doesn't need adjusting.
Meet the Founders
Environmental analyst & Industrial engineer
Vanessa & Alex
They are very good friends who decided to build something together. That's the simplest way to say it.
Vanessa is from Cuba. She worked for ten years as an environmental analyst before immigrating to Canada, then spent years doing what immigrants often have to do — rebuilding from the outside in, taking whatever work was available, staying patient with a version of her life that didn't quite fit yet. She runs La Casita Kitchen full-time. She also has a daughter. The two things happen in the same days, because they have to.
Alex is from Venezuela. He has a background in industrial engineering and still works in manufacturing — La Casita Kitchen is his second commitment, not his first. But you wouldn't know it by how present he is. He's the one at the market every Saturday. The one people stop to tell: "I come here every week just for these." He shows up for that.
They started this business without fully knowing how to run a business. They've learned most of it in the process of doing it — the sourcing, the commercial kitchen logistics, the packaging regulations, the difference between being busy and actually growing. They're still learning. They say so freely, which is probably why the people around them trust them.
What they knew from the start, and what hasn't changed, is the recipe. That part came from home. It doesn't need adjusting.
Meet the Founders
Environmental analyst & Industrial engineer
Vanessa & Alex
They are very good friends who decided to build something together. That's the simplest way to say it.
Vanessa is from Cuba. She worked for ten years as an environmental analyst before immigrating to Canada, then spent years doing what immigrants often have to do — rebuilding from the outside in, taking whatever work was available, staying patient with a version of her life that didn't quite fit yet. She runs La Casita Kitchen full-time. She also has a daughter. The two things happen in the same days, because they have to.
Alex is from Venezuela. He has a background in industrial engineering and still works in manufacturing — La Casita Kitchen is his second commitment, not his first. But you wouldn't know it by how present he is. He's the one at the market every Saturday. The one people stop to tell: "I come here every week just for these." He shows up for that.
They started this business without fully knowing how to run a business. They've learned most of it in the process of doing it — the sourcing, the commercial kitchen logistics, the packaging regulations, the difference between being busy and actually growing. They're still learning. They say so freely, which is probably why the people around them trust them.
What they knew from the start, and what hasn't changed, is the recipe. That part came from home. It doesn't need adjusting.
When we started, we didn't know exactly what we were doing. We knew the recipes. We knew the flavours. We did not know how to register a business, find a commercial kitchen, source ingredients at scale, design packaging that meets food safety requirements, or explain to a grocery buyer what piccadillo cubano is and why they should carry it.
We learned all of that on the way. Most of it the hard way.
What we want you to know — if you've bought from us, or if you're buying for the first time — is that when you bring our empanadas home, you are bringing something that started in our own kitchens. The piccadillo cubano is Vanessa's recipe. The pork and sweet pineapple is the way pork is made in Cuba at the holidays. These aren't approximations of Latin American food. They are the thing itself, made the way it's always been made, in a city far from where those recipes were born.
That means something to us. When a customer tells us their kid is obsessed with the empanadas, or that they make them for lunch every week, we feel that. There was a Saturday at the market when Alex was having a hard time — the kind of day when you start wondering whether it's all worth it — and a customer called over just to say these are the best thing I eat all week, and I drive here specifically to get them. He stood there for a moment. Then he kept going.
That's what your support actually does. It's not abstract. It reaches us.
To anyone who hasn't tried us yet: come find us at the market. Bring someone skeptical. Let them start with the chicken — they will, most people do — and then try the piccadillo. Try the halloumi. If the tequeños are out, get those first.
We are two immigrants who came to Halifax and decided to share the food that feels like home to us. We hope it feels a little like home to you too.
— Vanessa & Alex
A heartfelt Note
When we started, we didn't know exactly what we were doing. We knew the recipes. We knew the flavours. We did not know how to register a business, find a commercial kitchen, source ingredients at scale, design packaging that meets food safety requirements, or explain to a grocery buyer what piccadillo cubano is and why they should carry it.
We learned all of that on the way. Most of it the hard way.
What we want you to know — if you've bought from us, or if you're buying for the first time — is that when you bring our empanadas home, you are bringing something that started in our own kitchens. The piccadillo cubano is Vanessa's recipe. The pork and sweet pineapple is the way pork is made in Cuba at the holidays. These aren't approximations of Latin American food. They are the thing itself, made the way it's always been made, in a city far from where those recipes were born.
That means something to us. When a customer tells us their kid is obsessed with the empanadas, or that they make them for lunch every week, we feel that. There was a Saturday at the market when Alex was having a hard time — the kind of day when you start wondering whether it's all worth it — and a customer called over just to say these are the best thing I eat all week, and I drive here specifically to get them. He stood there for a moment. Then he kept going.
That's what your support actually does. It's not abstract. It reaches us.
To anyone who hasn't tried us yet: come find us at the market. Bring someone skeptical. Let them start with the chicken — they will, most people do — and then try the piccadillo. Try the halloumi. If the tequeños are out, get those first.
We are two immigrants who came to Halifax and decided to share the food that feels like home to us. We hope it feels a little like home to you too.
— Vanessa & Alex
A heartfelt Note
When we started, we didn't know exactly what we were doing. We knew the recipes. We knew the flavours. We did not know how to register a business, find a commercial kitchen, source ingredients at scale, design packaging that meets food safety requirements, or explain to a grocery buyer what piccadillo cubano is and why they should carry it.
We learned all of that on the way. Most of it the hard way.
What we want you to know — if you've bought from us, or if you're buying for the first time — is that when you bring our empanadas home, you are bringing something that started in our own kitchens. The piccadillo cubano is Vanessa's recipe. The pork and sweet pineapple is the way pork is made in Cuba at the holidays. These aren't approximations of Latin American food. They are the thing itself, made the way it's always been made, in a city far from where those recipes were born.
That means something to us. When a customer tells us their kid is obsessed with the empanadas, or that they make them for lunch every week, we feel that. There was a Saturday at the market when Alex was having a hard time — the kind of day when you start wondering whether it's all worth it — and a customer called over just to say these are the best thing I eat all week, and I drive here specifically to get them. He stood there for a moment. Then he kept going.
That's what your support actually does. It's not abstract. It reaches us.
To anyone who hasn't tried us yet: come find us at the market. Bring someone skeptical. Let them start with the chicken — they will, most people do — and then try the piccadillo. Try the halloumi. If the tequeños are out, get those first.
We are two immigrants who came to Halifax and decided to share the food that feels like home to us. We hope it feels a little like home to you too.
— Vanessa & Alex
A heartfelt Note
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Join Rooted Tale
Ready to join Canada's Local Storytellers?
From immigrant bakers to craft brewers, candle makers to café owners—Halifax's most authentic local businesses are building their legacy on Rooted Tale.
Join Rooted Tale
Ready to join Canada's Local Storytellers?
From immigrant bakers to craft brewers, candle makers to café owners—Halifax's most authentic local businesses are building their legacy on Rooted Tale.
Join Rooted Tale
Ready to join Canada's Local Storytellers?
From immigrant bakers to craft brewers, candle makers to café owners—Halifax's most authentic local businesses are building their legacy on Rooted Tale.
Every local business has a unique journey. If you have built something meaningful, overcome challenges, or have stories that could inspire others, we want to feature you on Rooted Tale.
© Rooted Tale 2026 All Rights Reserved
Designed with ❤️ for local brands.
Every local business has a unique journey. If you have built something meaningful, overcome challenges, or have stories that could inspire others, we want to feature you on Rooted Tale.
© Rooted Tale 2026 All Rights Reserved
Designed with ❤️ for local brands.