Community

The Spice of Life

Bauer Alumna Brings Family Tradition to Gourmet Salsa Business

By Jessica Navarro and Amanda Sebesta

In Houston, salsa is a mandatory condiment, served alongside and in all sorts of dishes and a staple in pantries and refrigerators across town.

For Bauer College MBA alumna Marisol Garcia De la Cruz, the city is a natural place to launch her business, Cascabel Salsa Gourmet, which brings authentic, artisanal small batch recipes to customers.

“Houston is a city where people appreciate good food and are curious to discover new flavors,” Garcia De la Cruz said. “This is an excellent market for any business. It’s the fourth largest and one of the most diverse cities in the United States, with a robust economy, and we’ve found many opportunities to share our salsa with Houstonians.”

Alongside business partner Stephanie Goni Fuentes, Garcia De la Cruz launched Cascabel Salsa Gourmet in 2016, selling first in local farmers markets and building a buzz around the brand. Now, their product is being distributed by major retailers, including Whole Foods Market.

For Garcia De la Cruz, the growing success of the business is about more than a tasty product. “Cascabel Salsa Gourmet is more than a simple salsa ― it represents family. Smelling and tasting it bring us back to our memories and traditions,” she said.

Born in Mexico City as the second child in a family of three daughters, Garcia De la Cruz was surrounded by extended family, including her grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins, and learned to cook at a young age with her mother.

“Growing up, I always ate fresh meals prepared either by my grandmother or by my mom,” she said. “I associate the sharing of meals with family. Our house always smelled like the food that was being cooked on that day.”

She added: “I can close my eyes and remember certain aromas that filled our home, and one of them was the smell of roasted dried peppers.”

A love of spicy food connected Garcia De la Cruz to a new friend, and her future business partner.

“Stephanie shared with me and my husband the salsa macha her grandmother in Mexico prepared,” she said. “I still remember how happy we were every time we tried the salsa with our meals or cooked something with it. The smell and flavor transported us to Mexico.”

The recipe is a carefully guarded secret passed down from generations, originating in Jalisco, Mexico, and first prepared by extended family members around kitchen tables. Garcia De la Cruz and Goni Fuentes have applied that same handcrafted approach to their business ― each jar of Cascabel Salsa Gourmet begins with a visit to local markets to handpick the best chiles, combining them in small batches with three natural and simple ingredients, using traditional methods. The deep crimson, smoky result isn’t your typical chip-dipping salsa ― it’s an oil-based salsa macha, traditional to Mexico.

“We have remained faithful to Stephanie’s grandmother’s recipe and traditional cooking methods,” Garcia De la Cruz said. “We want to keep our Mexican traditions and flavors alive through Cascabel.”

The salsa is sold online at cascabelsalsa.com, at all Houston-area Whole Foods retailers, and in specialty markets throughout the city.