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Kristina and Lewis Rodriguez found themselves with a lot of time on their hands during the pandemic and a yearning for variety in their home-cooked meals. What began as a once-a-week exploration of international cuisines, chosen randomly by sticking pins on a world map, has blossomed into Zelia’s Mediterranean Y Más, a food prep and delivery service run from their kitchen in Hollister.
“We would spin around in circles with our eyes closed,” she said. “Wherever the pin landed, I had to make a meal out of that location. We got Chicago once, and New Orleans. We got Africa a bunch of times; it’s a big continent.”
The couple came to cooking through different paths. Lewis has fond memories of watching his grandmother Zelia, the namesake of the business, cooking for the family.
“She cooked lunch and dinner,” he said, “but breakfast is the meal I most enjoyed. Occasionally, grandma would make some banana bread, which was a special delight. During the pandemic, I thought, “Let’s try to make this.”
Self-educated in the kitchen, Lewis developed his skills through YouTube and TikTok videos.
“I watched anything I could on the internet,” he said. “So I’d look at the videos and think, ‘Wait, I could do it, but let me add this,’ or ‘No, I like it this way.’”
Kristina, however, began cooking during her teenage years, starting with baking and relying on magazines for her recipes.
Kristina Rodriquez slicing Chicken Shawarma. Photo by Robert Eliason.
“I didn’t have too many people to play with when I was a kid,” she said. “So, I would just bake. I would make brownies, cakes, cookies, whatever recipe I could find. I would bake them and then try to build something from it.”
Kristina was accepted into culinary school, but could not afford the $50,000 tuition and the expensive cooking equipment. She turned to working at restaurants, including Sunnyvale’s Inchin Bamboo Garden, Dave & Buster’s, and Wingstop, until she and Lewis, who works for the post office, began having a problem balancing their jobs with the needs of caring for a child with special needs.
“We were pushed to start a business,” she said. “We had to juggle hospital visits, surgeries and lots of other things with our work schedules. I’d have to leave when something medical came up so I was always getting my hours cut.”
They explored the creation of a microenterprise home kitchen operation, where they prepare and sell a fixed number of meals each week, all of which are cooked in a commercial kitchen set-up located in their home. Lewis had two weeks of vacation coming up, so they jumped at the opportunity.
“Within five days, we had almost every license,” Kristina said, “It took a long time to get the health inspectors to come out, so rather than throw out dated ingredients, I used my family as guinea pigs. My neighbor was getting baklava and loving it. ”
Currently, the couple prepares food for deliveries on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Under the terms of a home kitchen, they can make no more than 30 individual meals per day, with a maximum of 90 in a week.
Orders are taken by phone and drawn from menus posted on Facebook. The selections include many of the foods discovered through the random pins they placed on their world map, with an emphasis on high-quality ingredients.
Mediterranean Salad. Photo by Robert Eliason.
“I am a huge nutrition nerd,” Kristina said. “And one thing that keeps coming up in all of my books is the Mediterranean diet. I pride myself on using the healthiest ingredients, such as olive oil, and I use an air fryer. I never deep fry anything.”
A recent offering starts with one of the dishes Kristina added to her first menu, her take on Chicken Shawarma. It’s marinated in Greek yogurt and a multitude of warm spices, including cloves, cardamom and cinnamon. Adding a bit of garlic, lemon and pepper, the result is a dish with all the complexity of the flavors without the traditional heat.
It was offered with her Mediterranean Salad, a dish that is vegan- and vegetarian-friendly, intensely flavorful and packed with nutrients. Saying she did not want to create a “boring salad” with just cucumbers, tomatoes and ranch dressing, Kristina took a more nutritious path.
“I have quinoa and feta cheese as sources of protein,” Kristina said. “My pickled red onions give you probiotics for your belly. I add tomatoes, cucumbers, and olives, then good fats from olive oil. So it’s a pretty loaded salad and very filling.”
“I want my meals to be balanced,” she continued. “I need to incorporate different things into them. I want something flavorful. I don’t want something that’s just carbs, or fat or proteins.”
As a nod to his grandmother, Lewis handles the desserts. His favorites are tiramisu, including variants with pistachios and Biscoff cookies and chocolate chip cookies from a recipe devised by his daughter.
Tiramisu. Photo by Robert Eliason.
“We’re still trying to see how this works,” he said, “before I start adding things like a tres leches cake, chocoflan or some vegan options. New things need clearance from the health department and that takes a long time.”
Lewis said he gets great satisfaction from the act of creating the desserts. Kristina said that for her, providing healthy food is a great motivator.
“I love the creative part of making food,” she said. “But I also want people to know what they are putting into their bodies. I want them to know all the goodness that’s going in our foods.”
Menus are posted to the Zelia’s Mediterranean Y Más Instagram page. Place orders by phone or text to (400) 500-6900.
Chicken Shawarma. Photo by Robert Eliason.
Chicken Shawarma. Photo by Robert Eliason.
Mediterranean Salad. Photo by Robert Eliason.
Email your recommendations for future Eat, Drink, Savor articles to roberteliason@benitolink.com.
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