Maricsa Trejo grew up in and around the kitchen, watching her family members cook. She initially considered a career in nursing, but her love for food prevailed, and she chose to attend culinary school at Dallas College’s El Centro Campus. She then set out on a career that took her from Dallas to New York, then to Portland and back. Along the way, she found her calling as a pastry chef.
In 2017, she launched La Casita Bakeshop. From a kitchen rental space, she began supplying pastries to local coffee shops like Cultivar Coffee and Parks Coffee. It was at Parks, where she also started hosting pop-up bakery stands, that a mention in D Magazine sparked attention. Demand led her to take an even bigger risk in 2019, when, alongside her husband and business partner, Alex Henderson, she signed a lease on her first brick-and-mortar location in Richardson. One week in, the pandemic shuttered her store. “We had one good weekend, and then everything shut down,” Trejo says.
Trejo scaled back operations and pivoted to online orders and curbside service. She also rekindled relationships with wholesale clients while she rebuilt demand for her bakery. Soon enough, business was humming again, bringing 2022 and 2023 nominations for Outstanding Baker in the prestigious James Beard Awards. Standout pastries including almond croissants, her signature churro cruffin, and her sourdough helped Trejo score numerous TV appearances on shows such as Fox’s Next Level Baker and Food Network’s Chopped. “I didn’t want to do it at first, but it ended up being really good for business,” she says…