Fernando Castillo’s years of experience working with award-winning chefs and his opportunity to further explore Latin American foods through travel have combined to bring an Ecuadorian treat to Northwest Arkansas.
Fernando’s new food truck, Chuzos Sabor Latino, is located at The Yacht Club food park in Fayetteville. The featured dish is a chuzo, a favorite street food he found on travels in Ecuador. Known as ‘carne en palito’, chuzos are meat on a stick, composed of various meats or just vegetables for a vegetarian option. The chicken, pork, beef, sausage, or shrimp chuzos are served with rice and beans. It is comfort food, exactly what Fernando wanted to bring to Northwest Arkansas.
The journey to opening his own business found many stops along the way. Over the last 22 years Fernando worked with two James Beard award winners – Chef Terrance Brennan at Picholine and Chef Daniel Boulud at DB Bistro Moderne in New York City. He served as sous chef for Chef Jared Reardon in Mexico City and his local experience was as executive chef at Theo’s Fayetteville and side-by-side with owner/entrepreneur Omar Kasim at Con Queso, also an ASBTDC client.
Once his decision was made to explore his own small business, Fernando reached out to the Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center and connected with Carolina Mejia, bilingual business consultant. Carolina helped him with key information for the development of his business plan and access to a loan from Banco Sí, a division of Signature Bank of Arkansas.
“If it weren’t for Carolina, I would still be looking for ways to open my food trailer! She gave me resources on how to open a business and how and who to contact for licensing and permits – she made the whole process a lot easier.”
“Working with Carolina at the ASBTDC was, and still is, a learning experience. Thank you to her and to the ASBTDC for helping me with this project!”
617 N. College
Fayetteville, AR 72701
ChuzosFayetteville @ Facebook & Instagram