Tienda Mi Casa Market’s pastry chefs are young and talented

Mexican grocery stores in Moses Lake are well known for their fruit, produce and meats, but they’re also stepping up their game offering plethora of pastries, cakes and breads.  One store with three talented bakers is Tienda Mi Casa Market on Third Avenue. Jose Ceja is the head baker with assistant bakers Angel Ruiz and Jose Castro. Three young men producing shelves of sweet delights and breads every day. 

Ceja and Ruiz met with this reporter at the market accompanied by Paula Garcia, the manager and CEO. The company owns two other stores in Othello and Ephrata. 

Ruiz began last October, and like Ceja, is not formerly trained as a pastry chef, but learned in the kitchen, self-taught with recipes he was provided and found online, watching YouTube and researching.  Ruiz is from Baja and Ceja from Michoacan. Ruiz worked as a cook in some restaurants and comes from a family of bakers and cooks, and he started in October at Mi Casa. 

“I was excited to learn in the bakery area,” Ruiz said about the opportunity to work in Mi Casa as a pastry chef. “My family, my parents' families were in the bakery and in kitchen service food industry, and the fact that I can work and create beautiful pastries for the community fills me up with joy, being able to satisfy the customers, and in learning newer recipes. Improving the recipes is one of the biggest challenges that I love being part of. It's a fun challenge.” 

Ceja, prior to working at Mi Casa, was working in a car wash. But his passion had always been baking. 

“I was interested in the creation of making great cakes, having to create out of my own hands,” Ceja said, with Garcia translating. 

Ceja, 21, grew up in Mexico in a region famous for its sweet breads and cakes, which he has incorporated into his pastries. Being able to work with his own hands to create beautiful things, that's what motivates Ceja as a pastry chef and pushes him to learn constantly. 

As for donuts in Mexico, they are not as common as in America, and they are not as creative with toppings and presentation. That’s where the Mi Casa bakers learned from trial and error, crafting each one with more creativity and various toppings.  

“They're always looking out for trends and trying to look out for what the customer is looking for,” explained Garcia. “They try to stay on top of the trend, innovating with colorful ingredients, trying to make them look even better and taste a lot better too.” 

The first thing that stands out in the pastry section of the store is the multiple shelves of colorfully topped donuts. Though offered in Mexico, the donuts in America are made with more creative toppings. And the Mi Casa bakers have indulged themselves in that creative process. 

“Something I noticed in the difference between the Mexico donuts and the USA donuts is the difference in the look,” said Ruiz. “The Mexican donuts are more like homemade, and the USA donuts are more colorful and all the toppings like sprinkles, chocolate sprinkles, rainbow sprinkles, chocolate chips.” 

In addition to the donuts, the pastry shelves are filled with traditional Mexican pastries and breads like Concha, puerquito (porkies shaped like pigs), but savory offerings as well such as bolillo, filled with cream cheese and jalapenos. They also bake traditional pastries like carrot cake, which is beautifully adorned with white cream and carrot frosting design toppings. 

But at the end of the day, it’s what sells and pleases the customer that dictates what is made and placed on the shelves, said Garcia. 

“Testing, trial and error, trial and error is how we improve our recipes,” she said. “Also listening to the customers, keeping track of what sells, how many sales, so obviously that's kind of how we would know. Wait, it's a hit. Let's go all in on that.” 

The result is what this reporter would describe as an extraordinary assortment of sweet delights, and observing the customers that come into the store, never is one pastry or bread taken, but bags and boxes of breads and pastries. 

And not to be overlooked are the cakes, a mastery of design and flavors, with fresh fruits topping most to them. Unlike donuts, cakes in Mexico are big part of the traditions of Mexican celebrations like birthdays, which requires two cakes. 

“We have this culture of any time it's a party, we get our faces, whoever's birthday, whoever is the one being celebrated, they have to get their face pushed into the cake; it's like a tradition,” said Ruiz.  

“So, they always buy two cakes,” Garcia joined in. “Why? Because one cake is for the head, the face, the mushing, and the other cake is for the guests.” 

“You can't have a party without a cake,” Garcia continued. “And it has to be a big one. But you can  have a cake any day. It doesn't have to be a special occasion. We'll do smaller pieces for you too, individual pieces for people that are craving for a cake. They don't have to buy a big size cake, or even for small parties, we have smaller size cakes for all occasions, all sizes, individual to big, big, big crowds.” 

Garcia said they are lucky to have such talented, young pastry chefs at Mi Casa, and they are setting an example for the other stores and what they can strive for in the baking kitchen. 

“They love their work; they love what they put into their work, in their creation,” said Garcia. “It is transmitted to their products. They love what they're doing, and people that come here. They put their heart and soul into it, and that is transmitted into our customers, so what they won't find in other places, they find it here at Mi Casa Market.” 

    Donuts and other tasty delights are created with a variety of tasty toppings at Tienda Mi Casa Market.
  

    Traditional carrot cakes at Tienda Mi Casa Market.
  

    Cakes are a tradition in Mexico and a centerpiece at Tienda Mi Casa Market for parties or a tasty treat for one.