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Meet Laureano and Brandy Rivera of The Secret Ingredient Food Truck in Casa Grande

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Today we’d like to introduce you to Laureano and Brandy Rivera.

Laureano and Brandy, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
Ironically, this story begins with Nightmares. In early December 2018, I (Laureano) started getting sick with the flu, I got off work early, I stopped at the drug store to pick up Nyquil and I went to bed. I woke up around 2 PM sweating having crazy nightmares. A vivid nightmare I had was about our best friends, my buddy’s wife was in a wheelchair, I asked what happened and she said that her back hurt from walking because she was so overweight and didn’t feel like walking (it reminded me of the movie Wall E), my buddy was standing behind her and was supporting her decision to get a wheelchair. I was IRATE at both of them and told her to get TF out of that chair and start exercising! I woke up, and still angry! I went back to sleep to try to forget that nightmare. The next dream I had was much better.

My wife and I were in the parking lot of a big supermarket, selling food out of a tiny cart. We were busy as hell and there was a long line of people, We were busting ass together and we were “IN THE ZONE!” My wife and I have been married for almost 18 years. We work very well together, whether it’s cooking, baking cakes or replacing a fuel pump on an old Pontiac Sunbird so she can have a vehicle to get to school the next day.

We met at Harrah’s Ak-Chin Casino in 2000. I was 20 years old still living at home with my parents in Maricopa, she was 28 with 2 kids. I was a Slot Technician and she was a Slot Attendant. I guess that’s were we starting working well together as a team. We worked the late shift, and one day (being the nice guy that I am 😉 I helped her moving chairs on the casino floor so she could fill the machines with coins. She thanked me for my generosity. Even though I probably only did it because I wanted her number. That sparked a beautiful relationship that almost 20 years later is only getting stronger and stronger. Fast forward to 2012, we no longer work at the casino, I work for the Arizona Department of Gaming (still do, just had my 15th anniversary) and Brandy works at Albertson’s in Casa Grande. Albertson’s shut down the store in Casa Grande and all employees were asked if they wanted to transfer to a store in the valley. Some did but most found other jobs in CG. I told Brandy that she could stay home and not have to work. Well, one day, we were lying bed watching The Food Network (which Brandy watched 24/7) and there was a scene where a Chef was putting on his Chef jacket. I turned to Brandy and asked, “What would you do if you could do that?” Her eyes welled up with tears. She could not say anything. She didn’t have to. The next day, we were having lunch at a local Chinese restaurant in CG. I get a phone call from a recruiter at the Art Institute of Phoenix. After Brandy started crying the night before I had gone online to find culinary schools and entered my information to get a callback, the first one to call me back was The Art Institute. We finished up lunch and drove from Casa Grande to Phoenix to meet the recruiter. When we got there, I saw Brandy’s eyes LIGHT UP with excitement and that made my heart happy. When we left the Art Institute Brandy was enrolled to begin school in a couple of months. She began to worry about how we were going to pay for that. I said don’t worry about it, we will handle it.

Brandy decided to get her degree in Baking and Pastry because she wanted a challenge. She could already cook savory food and had little knowledge of pastries. I tried to convince her of doing culinary because I know her food and she could learn so much more but was set on Baking and Pastry. A few months later, things were getting tight at home. Bills were coming with only one income. So, we had a talk and decided that Brandy would get a part-time job just to cover the gas of traveling from Maricopa (where we lived at the time) to Phoenix for school. The Art Institute got Brandy a lead on a job at the Sheraton Wild Horse Pass in the Bakery. She was called for an interview by Samantha Roehrenbeck who was the Pastry Chef at the time. Sam asked Brandy to come in a Stage for the job. Brandy had to ask one of her professors at school what ‘stage’ meant, she thought it meant STAGE as Exit Stage Left! When Brandy showed up for her stage, Sam asked her to make some cream puffs and a cake and Anglais. Brandy was still NEW to this pastry world that she had not even learned those recipes and techniques in school yet. So Brandy improvised and remembered seeing those recipes and techniques on the Food Network years before. She had NO CLUE what she was doing, and was SO nervous. She pulled one out of her ass and SHE GOT THE JOB! I asked Brandy, “how the hell did you know how to do that?” She says “I just remembered watching it on TV and I made it, Sam loved it” I was just amazed at that. It’s like if a mechanic shows up to a job interview and they ask him to replace a transmission on a car and doing it without ever done it before.

Brandy now had a FULL-time job and was a full-time student. AND somehow she found time to go to the gym in between. She had her hands full! in 2014 Brandy graduated with Honors with an Associates Degree in Baking and Pastry! She loved her time at the Art Institute and at the Sheraton. After Sam moved to Ohio with her husband and two dogs to live closer to family, Brandy eventually left the Sheraton at got a job at Vekol Market in the Ak-Chin Indian Community where she eventually became Cafe Supervisor and still works there now. Brandy and I have always dreamed of opening our own restaurant. Every year, we have Friendsgiving at our home the week before Thanksgiving, so our friends can come over instead of going to their own Families. We go ALL out! Last year we smoked three turkeys in my smoker and had over 50 people at our home. We love cooking for our friends and Family. And we CONSTANTLY are told we should open our own spot. We have toiled with the idea of opening our own place but never pulled the trigger. We’ve also thought about a food truck but that never really went anywhere either until those 103-degree flu-like symptoms sparked the idea of opening our own food truck again.

At the time, Brandy was knee deep in a large event in Ak-Chin called Masik-Tas (Ak-Chin’s birthday as an Indian Community where they have a Rodeo with amusement rides and free concerts) Brandy and her crew at Vekol Market were working 16 hours days, so I didn’t want to bother Brandy with my epiphany. But I texted her and said, “we need to sit down and talk babe, I have something to tell you.” So, she freaks out because she always thinks the worse, maybe that I’m going to leave her for someone younger or I have cancer or something insane like that, But I assured her that it was good news and “quit trippin.” About 10 days go by after Masik-Tas is over, and Brandy finally asks, “So, what did you want to talk about?” I say, “OK you ready?” I grab a small notepad and a pen and we go have dinner at Olive Garden. At dinner, we order our drinks and apps, I look at her and told her about my nightmares and my wonderful dream. I say, “Let’s Open a Food Truck!” So, she immediately starts listing the reasons (or excuses) as to how it’s impossible. So now, I’m writing away on my little notepad all these excuses, after 5 minutes of ranting, I look at my sheet, it has about 6 or 7 reasons and excuses on it. And each one I have an answer to. You see, I know my wife. She wants security. We have good secure jobs. We pay our bills on time and were good. But jumping into such a big venture is scary. Like I have always told her. We have been packing our parachute for YEARS now. We KNOW it’s securely packed and we did it ourselves and we can trust each other. We are hanging on the edge of that plane 12,500 feet in the air, afraid to JUMP! Back to the list, one by one I say we can do this because this, and we can do that because of that, but when I got to the part where I was going to handle ALL of the permits, licenses, funding, accounting clerical you name it, her eyes welled up with tears once again. I know those tears. That’s her heart leaking. That is her heart pouring out of her through her tear ducts. And that makes MY heart happy.

On December 21st, we were in the showroom of a Food Truck Builder in Phoenix. We told them our plans they designed a trailer for us. We got a quote of $65,000. Once again that doubt of how are we going to pay for this crept its ugly head. I told Brandy NOTHING is stopping us! Trust in me! NOTHING WILL STOP US! I start applying for TONS of loans to get funding. And one by one, we get denied or we hear nothing back. One place told me that they need three years of being in business to get a business loan. Uh OK, that’s dumb! Again, NOTHING IS STOPPING US. Let me cut in the middle here, in January 2017 Brandy and I got our finances straight and starting attacking our debt after we read The Total Money Makeover by Dave Ramsey, We totally immersed ourselves in the Baby Steps and we paid off nearly $30,000 in debt. We were set to be debt free except for our home in January 2020. So, getting into debt to start a business is counter-intuitive and very scary! Back to the story. After getting denied left and right, I sought the advice of my facebook friends on any advice in starting a business. I got a PM from a friend who owns a copy machine repair business and said that they had to use credit cards to start and used LegalZoom for the LLC. We did not want to use credit cards, but in the end, we had to. I also depleted my 401k at work to the full amount we could borrow. We bought a used trailer from the parents of an old highs school friend for $25,000, and with four credit cards and a personal loan from our credit union, we now have a beautiful freshly wrapped 20-foot trailer! At EVERY step of the way, we have hit snags in our journey. From lending to getting the trailer legal by installing a Fire Suppression system and getting ripped off by a different food truck builder. We have learned so much! And we are very grateful for our fellow food truckers who have helped us out in our journey. We are weeks (hopefully days) away from hitting the streets of Casa Grande, Maricopa and other cities in Pinal County, and as soon as we start making more money we want to get our Maricopa County Permit and hit the valley.

A Facebook Group page called Arizona Food Truck Threads Community lead by Julia Martinez is a GREAT group of Food Truckers in the Valley and source of information. We have not even hit the streets yet and we’re part of the Food Truck Family. Those people are truly helpful. You would think that it’s all competition and would not want to help each other out, but it’s the complete opposite! Just this weekend one food trucker lent his tow hitch so another can get to an event! It is so comforting to know that everyone or MOSTLY everyone has each other’s back and wants the other to succeed. We are so excited and anxious to get started, especially since we haven’t made any money and the credit cards and 401k loan payments are due now! Our goal is to touch each one of our customer’s hearts through our food. And give back to the community. If we could pay the bills with the reaction of someone biting into one of our chimichurri tacos, we wouldn’t charge for it. Every time Brandy feeds someone, she doesn’t walk away until they take a bite. Her fuel to keep cooking bomb ass food is your reaction to that first bite. That “mmmm” sound or that roll of the eyes is payment enough for her. Oh and THE Secret Ingredient is LOVE. See you on the streets! If you see us stop by for a hug. I’m a hugger. I will be standing out front ready to greet you and take your order and change a flat tire on your car if you need it. Much Love and Respect, Big Lare and Brandy Rivera, The Secret Ingredient Food Truck

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Very rough road. Getting denied for many loans. Getting ripped off by a food truck builder. Saying that we needed a new vent hood in our trailer and charging me $5,000 to later find out that my old one was good. Or installing equipment that we didn’t order and cutting holes in my trailer so we just paid for the new equipment because it was new and didn’t want them to have to patch the sides of the trailer. To last week after getting our trailer home from the wrap place my truck blows up and we had to buy a new one to haul our rig around. To getting our menu denied by the county because it was “too big” and being told that we cannot cook that much food out of a trailer without ever seeing our trailer first. To have to get multiple Temporary Use permits for the City of Casa Grande to park, at $50 each. We thought we could park where we want with one permit. NOTHING IS STOPPING US!

We’d love to hear more about your business.
The Secret Ingredient is Love. Brandy’s Love. Our Love. WE make that food taste amazing. Brandy puts her love into what she cooks. We want to be able to give back to the community. We are so grateful and want to give back. My parents came here from Mexico illegally to make a better life, my brother an I were born in Arizona and my parents worked their asses off to provide for us while making minimum wage and working hard labor in agriculture in Maricopa in the ’80s and ’90s. We come from humble beginnings and want to help other people who might not have the means to make it in this world. We want to show people that if you believe it, you can make it. On the front of our trailer, there is a quote by Henry Ford that says, “If you think you can’t or you think you can, you are RIGHT!”

What were you like growing up?
Like I stated earlier, my parents are from Yecora, Sonora Mexico. A small town in the Mountains of Southern Sonora in the Sierra Madre Mountain Range. My parents immigrated here in the ’70s. They worked hard in the Pecan Fields of Maricopa, AZ They raised two boys making minimum wage. But to this day, they live debt free and are retired.

Brandy’s grandparents came to Arizona on horse-drawn covered wagons from Oklahoma. They settled in Arizona City and were Cotton Farmers on the Pearce Farms. Brandy grew up riding horses and competing at Rodeos.

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