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By Natalia Otero
Chef María Olmino is a woman who has risen from pain and has rebuilt her home and a good future for her three children, thanks to her culinary skills. Last August, she opened La Casita del Sabor's third restaurant in Middletown, Connecticut, offering Latin American cuisine, and says the reception has been enormous.
Olmino was born in Guatemala, and at age 13 she started selling enchiladas, garnachas and snacks with her mother, in front of the church. She learned not only about cooking, but also about the business.
“My mother told me: 'let's make enchiladas,' and I went with a basket to the church, and we sold them very well. I saw that she multiplied the profits, and that's how I learned that the business was good,” she says, satisfied with having learned empirically about the business and today being part of an important Latin American restaurant.
In 2006, leaving an abusive relationship with the father of her children, she migrated to the United States and began working for a Colombian restaurant, called La Casona Restaurant, in Connecticut, making empanadas. There, she showed that she had talent and became the chef of the place.
Although things were going very well for her, she felt very alone, because she had had to leave her three children, Erick, Cristian and Alejandro Mauricio, in Guatemala, when they were under 10 years old, under the care of her mother.
Looking at the path she has traveled, María feels grateful for everything that has happened to her, and for the opportunities that each person in the restaurants has given her. Above all, she fondly remembers the woman who was the owner of La Casita del Sabor, because she, after seeing María's talent, in 2011, offered to sell her the restaurant for $18,000, in exchange for her paying her the rent every month.
After eight years of being separated from her children, thanks to the fact that things with La Casita del Sabor were going very well, in 2012, Cristian and Erick arrived to meet Olmino. Three years later her youngest, Alejandro, joined them. Since they were still children, she made them do simple things in the restaurant, while they went to school. Meanwhile, Olmino was saving to pay for her higher education.
“Since I did everything, from serving to cooking, cleaning, everything, I taught them little by little. First I had them make juices, wipe the tables. And they grew up in this restaurant environment and, when the eldest graduated and was going to study construction, he offered me to use the money to set up the next La Casita del Sabor location.”
In 2019, they bought the new location, but then the pandemic arrived. Olmino has an unwavering faith in God and, as she says, it is this that has helped her rise in the face of any adversity. She did not lose faith and she found enormous support in the community.
“My three children and I managed to open the second location on the same block. And, the plan was to close the original location, but they our clientele really liked it and it's still there. Although now we are undergoing renovations.”
With the third restaurant, which opened on August 19 of this year, Olmino was afraid that the Latin flavor would not be well received in Middletown. But she “got into it,” as she says. And, after a month of being open, they have old customers who come to visit it, and new ones who are becoming regulars.
“Every time we serve garnachas and Guatemalan enchiladas, I remember those moments with my mother, which was what first paved the way for me.”
This dish, unlike Mexican enchiladas, is served on a very crispy tortilla base topped with pickled cabbage and beets in vinegar, salt and lemon, then a layer of ground beef and cheese sauce.
At La Casita del Sabor they sell dishes from Puerto Rico, Colombia, El Salvador, and Honduras. From tres paisas to carne asada, to rib broths... the Latin American flavor has been enjoyed in Hartford, thanks to María's talent and, of course, her faith in her life.