 Hello, and welcome to The Launchpad. This is an offshoot of the Startup to Storefront podcast where we talk to the founders of companies that are just getting started and whose stories we find compelling. Today we talk with Ralph and Caroline Wald, co-founders and the husband and wife Chef Duo behind a Marac Peruvian kitchen. The restaurant industry is constantly evolving and trends can seemingly pop up and disappear overnight. But one industry trend that is looking like it has some staying power is the ghost kitchen. Brick and mortar restaurants begat more cost-efficient food trucks, which have in turn led to even more cost-efficient ghost kitchens. Today we cover how the coronavirus pandemic steered Ralph and Caroline into opening Aymada, the economics of taking orders through delivery apps, and how to progress from a cook to a chef. Hang on, hang on. If you're not subscribed, can you go ahead and do that right now before we get on with the video? It helps us out tremendously. That's all we ask and we're back. Now on to the episode. All right, bienvenidos al podcast. On today's show we're talking to Aymada Peruvian kitchen with Caroline and Ralph. Thank you guys for joining. Tell us a little bit about what you guys are working on here in Lincoln Heights. Hi, thank you so much for having us. Yeah, so I'm Caroline and this is my husband Ralph. We are Aymara Peruvian kitchen and we're a family business. This is us. This is my husband and I and we opened back in October 2020. So right in the middle of that crazy year and we do Peruvian food with authentic Peruvian ingredient that we source here in LA and then we import from Peru. We are a ghost kitchen operation. So we offer fast and fresh food with delivery, curbside pickup. We also do catering and our goal is really to deliver authentic Peruvian food in this crazy world of 2020 and 2021. It is a crazy world. When you guys were going down the path of this and we'll get into all the delicious food after. But when you guys are going down the path, I know this is kind of a new thing for a lot of people in the restaurant industry where you have so many options. You can go with a food truck, which is kind of a lightweight, less expensive version. You can go full blown restaurant, which is super expensive and you have to hit. You have to like do really well for five, six years in order to get any sort of money back, especially if you're building out this brand new kitchen. And so as you guys were thinking about your options and it's COVID. So we throw another issue where no one can come in anyway, for the most part, right? And so what landed you on the decision to pursue a ghost kitchen or how did you even learn about the cloud kitchen ghost kitchen concept? Yeah, no, that's that's a great question. We had been looking to open a restaurant for years. We were back in March 2020, we were actively looking for a location. In fact, two days before the shutdown, we were having a meeting with a landlord about a space that we loved and we were having lunch and we didn't, we didn't happen, obviously, because two days later, you know, the whole world was shutting, we're shutting down. So it always been our dream to open a Peruvian restaurant. Now, after, you know, COVID-19, obviously we had to rethink about everything. What's going to happen? We've seen all the restaurant closures, you know, around the country, around the world. So we were like, okay, what's next? You know, and, you know, Ralph lost both of his job. I personally did not have any clients with my consulting business. So we were like, okay, what are we going to do? And back in May, you know, I literally called the health department, you know, of Los Angeles. I started to ask questions and they actually the one that told me about Ghost Kitchen. And then I started investigating and I was like, oh, that's, you know, sounds really good. It's going to be the right fit for us. And they actually, Ghost Kitchen, you know, were already successful before the pandemic, right? But then obviously it was, you know, what happened last year. It took that business model to a whole new level. Yeah. Well, first of all, congratulations on losing your jobs. I know that sounds crazy, but the thing I tell everyone, like, get fired or lose your job because you're finally going to do something that you love. And, you know, while it feels very depressing, I think at the end of the day, it's a net positive. And you're still here, you're thriving, you guys are working together. And so things are moving in the right direction, which is exciting. As you guys got the Ghost Kitchen, right, like, there's so many unknowns. So if I'm, if people are watching, listening and they're thinking of starting their own Ghost Kitchen, just because of COVID or because it makes way more sense financially, what's the hard part? Like at the end of the day, you have to do all this marketing, right? Because no one can come to you. And so how does that work for you guys? Is there any training? Is there like groups out there that can help? Or is it just you guys doing social media and just plugging away little by little by little? Yeah, I think this is the most difficult part for everything because even we open almost over three months already. Four months? Yeah. It's going to be four months already and people are still calling. Hey, do you have a patio? Can I get a reservation for you? So it's difficult because we're inside of a building. So we have to explain to people, where I go to the kitchen, you know, you can order online or you can call us and we can bring the food to the side. No, but I want to talk with somebody. Yeah. I want to see the menu. I want to see what you have. Yeah, that we have pictures online. And then a lot of people believe or think it's like, so your pictures are real, you know, because you're a ghost. So I would expect that people are looking, you know, so I want to make sure that your pictures are real from when I get it. Yes, of course, you know, yeah, but you're a ghost kitchen. I can see you. The most difficult part is, you know, explaining to potential customer how they can, you know, order from us and reach out, right? But overall, and I think, you know, the pandemic and all the closure actually helps people because they know there's some, they know they cannot come in anyway. So it kind of helped our model. But yeah, and then for, you know, spreading the word, I mean, we do social media. Yeah, I mean, it's really is about social media. We were, you know, we had invited, you know, influencers from Instagram. We're doing, you know, a podcast with you for the first time. So we're trying, you know, different marketing, you know, different type of, you know, how to reach out to people. And then we also do the traditional. We have flyers and we literally go to the neighborhoods, you know, the business neighbors in Lincoln Heights and we, you know, introduce yourself. We do some specials for the neighbors. So I also wanted to talk to you guys because we're building a brewery in Lincoln Heights. And so as we think about our grand opening, it's always good to partner with different people within the community. And so we can talk about that later, but that's something that's on the horizon. When you guys get your orders in, is it mostly like Uber Eats, DoorDash app orders? Or is it mostly people like me who order and then come up and then pick it up? What are you seeing the behavior and how has that changed maybe through COVID? I would say at the beginning it was only because nobody knows us, you know. So our brand was brand new. It was a baby. And we come from different backgrounds. I'm not a chef. I never, she never worked as a chef. So, you know, so we just pop out in Lincoln Heights and introduce ourselves, you know, to every single neighbor. Hey, you know, I'm from Amara. We cook for you. You know, we can cook. Yeah, nobody knew us. Nobody knew us. You know, and, but I think that the platforms, I call it the platform, like all the deliveries up, it's now it's about 20% of, you know, revenue. And the lower it is, the better. Yeah, the fees are too high. The fees are not favorable. Yes. And actually, you know, a lot of people seem that ordering for platforms, they seem that we're not paying commissions, you know. Yeah, there is customers don't know, you know, that's. Tell us, tell everyone, tell everyone the realities of this, because I've been saying this forever. I'm like, restaurants are not making money on this, on these, on some of these dishes and stuff. Yeah. I would say 95% of platforms, they charge us 25 to 33% of all the sales. From the net sales. Net sales. So let's say you buy something for $10, you're paying the platform $3.30, right? Yeah. And that's it. And the customer is already paying a delivery fee. And sometimes I think it's another fee, something another fee. So for sure, you have to have them, I believe. I mean, because we're still new, so we want to, you know, I don't think it's completely bad to have them. But for sure, the more the customer reach out directly to us, the better. And, you know, we have their name, we write, we do personal thank you cards that we write every night. And so when the customer reach out to us, it's very personal. We have a lot of repeated customer already. I know some cities, I know here in West Hollywood, basically the WeHo, the West Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is, is effectively having all of these delivery delivery apps and they're passing legislation like rules that restrict the amount of fees that each of these delivery apps or pickup apps or just order apps can, can charge the restaurant. And what's nice that I've seen here in West Hollywood is some of the restaurants are getting together and not allowing any delivery apps on like an like basically imagine 30 restaurants saying we're not going to be on any apps. And so what happens is people like me, we're looking for it, we don't see it. Then we go to their Instagram and they're all like, yeah, we're not on the apps, please come support us and here's why. And they're telling everybody like the dollar amounts. And I just think that education is super important because it's hard to survive as a business already. In your space, are there other restaurants too? Or are you guys the only one? Yeah, there is a few other retailers in our building. It's mostly wholesale and yeah, more wholesale. But there is another few. Yeah, but it's not the major revenue. Just from a cost perspective. So I think about it like this, like to build out a kitchen could cost somewhere between 500,000, 600,000, especially if you're buying all new equipment, leasing kitchen space, still kind of expensive. And so was the cloud kitchen model significantly more or less expensive for you guys? No, for sure. Building a restaurant from scratch can cost anywhere from a quarter million to millions of dollars. And with permitting, with the city and health department, plan check, it can take months, up to years sometimes. I've seen this before in LA. So ghost kitchen really is not only it's less investment, significantly less investment, but it's also a faster process. If you get all your paperwork together, you can open within two weeks. Yeah, two, three weeks, you know, you just have to bring your equipment in, you know, and that's it. Everything else is permitted already. So it really makes sense, especially for new concepts like us when you want to test the market. For me, ghost kitchens are what food truck used to be like 10, 15 years ago. You know, I think it's going to is going to keep on growing because COVID obviously, but also because it's so much easier for young chef or startup, you know, concept. And you can see ghost kitchen opening all across the country, you know, in Houston and Chicago. Yeah. So do you see this as a stepping stone for something bigger in the future? Do you plan on opening up an actual restaurant a couple of years down the line or whenever, whenever you guys feel like you're ready to make the jump? Yes. We were thinking to have a restaurant, but now because all the pandemics, we need a big patio. Just to make sure, you know, just to make sure we can run. This is our goal. You know, we were actually about to, you know, open a full restaurant with bar, with patio and everything, you know, and put all authentic Peruvian experience, you know, that I see that I didn't see so many Peruvians that are really authentic in Los Angeles, in my perspective. But we do something young, you know. Yeah, we were definitely looking when I don't know because I mean, with everything that is still going on, I don't know how the restaurant industry is going to be even in six months. But at some point, yes, we would love to, you know, open a break in more location and like you say, like give the full Peruvian experience with music and cocktails. You know, you talk about this full Peruvian experience and one of the things that I know about the restaurant world is that certain cuisines are looked upon more favorably than others. So for example, you look at which restaurants have Michelin stars handed out to them. A lot of them are either French or Italian, some Spanish, and not a lot else in terms of other countries, cultures and cuisines. So Caroline, I know you are from France. What was that decision like? Did you even consider opening up a French restaurant versus a Peruvian? I mean, I agree with you, Ralph. I think that there are not enough authentic Peruvian restaurants out there in the world, let alone LA. So I applaud you guys for going the Peruvian route. But what do you guys think about that whole culture of exclusivity in terms of cuisine in higher-end restaurants? Yeah, no, for sure. I feel like French and Japanese are like, you know, on the top of like the Michelin criteria. I don't know. It's funny you say that because I always say it's always these are French or Japanese. And then sometimes there is a little bit of Spain or I don't know, Italian, but Peruvian food in general is actually very, for the past, I believe, what, five, seven years? Peruvian food is really booming. There is a lot of great chefs in San Francisco. In Peru, actually, there is three Peruvian restaurants on the top 10. And they have Michelin star. And they have Michelin star. So it's actually Peruvian. It's becoming fancy actually. But no, I think for us, it makes sense to open Peruvian a Peruvian restaurant rather than a French restaurant because we love family, comfort food. And Peruvian food is more about that, like amazing flavor, sharing the meal with your family. And obviously, you know, French food is amazing. I mean, that's my roots, right? But I don't know. I feel like in LA, specifically for LA, Peruvian is more approachable. And also it's a little more mixed. So if you go to, I mean, you can try it anytime. You're welcome to come, please. So you can get ceviche is Peruvian Japanese. You get fried rice, Peruvian Chinese. You get pesto pasta, Italian Peruvian. You know, there is a mix of every single country. So you have a lot of variety that you can get Italian, Chinese, Japanese. Yeah, you can never get bored with Peruvian food. There's so many different dishes. I agree. Hey, show us the can you're drinking. I just want everyone to see this beautiful icon of culture right here, that little Inca cola. La bebida del Perú. Lo mejor, lo mejor del Perú. I grew up with this. So Nick, I would play soccer in Peru and then I would drink Inca. I'd run home and drink Inca cola. I don't know. It's not very healthy, but that's what I did. Probably not recommended by dietitians, but yeah. Not anymore. At one time it was. And so from you guys as you, I'm just thinking about this as like a growth model, right? So it seems like, and in talking to you, I'm kind of learning this. It seems like if you start a ghost kitchen, it's kind of a lightweight way, lightweight in the sense of not building your own restaurant. It's, you know, like cost way of building a brand while testing the market, let's say, right? And so then it kind of allows you to build a momentum before you start probably opening up a location. What's interesting is you guys are still considering that as a as an option. And so the ghost kitchen just kind of kind of gives you like a way to test, right? Do you kind of look at it like that? Like you can test new recipes, test new products and see what works or I'm sure you guys are already collecting data on people love the lomo. Let's say you're like, don't like this so much, right? It's 80. I would say what 80% of the sales is the lomo saltado. Is that the dish? Is that your, is that like every, every Peruvian place that I've ever been to kills one dish? It's like they make one thing better than anything else ever. And would you say that's the lomo for you guys? Yeah, I mean, if you have to do one dish good in a Peruvian restaurant, it has to be the lomo. Because that's every order that we get, there is always a lomo. Yeah, sometimes it's only, we were thinking, we're joking, you know, sometimes we were thinking we should change the name. Call it House of Lomo. House of Lomo because every day it's lomo, lomo, lomo, lomo, lomo, lomo, lomo, lomo, lomo, you know? That's not a bad idea. I mean, do you feel like you guys are handcuffed in a way to that dish? Do you ever really push other dishes out to your customers to be like, hey, we're not just the House of Lomo. We're also the, whatever it else might be. Yeah. But, you know, I think it's in a good way, it's really interesting because they got the lomo, they like the lomo. And then they feel confident to try the different stuff. So sometimes, you know, people ask, why do you recommend Ohababa or Rochalfa? Would you like pasta? Would you like something light? So you can recommend, but the lomo is that. The go-to dish. That everybody knows. Yeah, you fall in love with the lomo. That's the one that you fall in love with. But we do have, we created some dishes that are not like traditional Peruvian because we wanted to give it like a, like a new touch, like the Peruvian street corn. We have a rotisserie sandwich. So it's, we use the pollo, the chicken, the rotisserie chicken. And then we put it in a sandwich, right? So this is also a dish that we created to make it. I don't know. A new touch. A new touch. We use authentic, you know, we bring the chocolate or the Peruvian corn from Peru. We use spices from Peru. We use the pasta from Peru. Sometimes, you know, the way that we try to present is like, this is the inspiration from our grandmothers. My grandma is from the Andes, from Peru. Her grandma is, you know, Parisian, you know? From Normandy. From Normandy. But we try to put, it's like, okay, let's see if you are, you're eating, but it's like my grandma and her grandma is cooking for you. Yeah. Doesn't have the fanciness of like a Michelin star, but have the freshness, has the authentic. The quality and the taste. And we try to do the most authentic that we can. So people, they will sing, people who went to Peru, it's like, oh my God, it tastes like Peru. You know, I remember I was in the cost of Peru and, you know, this is how the ceviche tastes. Even sometimes the fish we bring from Peru, we try to put all the experience. And if you never went to Peru, it's like you're traveling. You're traveling, you know, from Los Angeles to Peru without paying ticket, without anything. You know, yes, getting the all experience in one place. And it's a family recipe. I love that. I love that a lot. Oh, Aymada. Aymada is a Peruvian word. It used to be a language kind of like, get you on Peru. Does the word mean anything specific to you? Is that where your family is from? Or what's kind of the background just behind the name? So Aymada is different meanings. Aymada is a language. It's a culture. But we like Aymara because Aymara has a meaning of the name. The meaning of the name of Aymara means beautiful young woman, really creative. But it's shy. It's a female inspiration because the Aymara is really, Aymara Peruvian Kitchen is for us a tribute to both her grandmother, maternal grandmother. Because it's really, it's all the recipe that we have and all the Peruvian food that we have comes from Ralph's family. So it's, you know, his grandma that shared all the recipe with us and we practice with her. And then it's also my love, my love of cooking. I've always wanted to have my restaurant and cook my own food. It comes also from my grandmother, from Normandy. And so it really is a tribute to them. And so that's why we chose Aymara. That's beautiful. I love it. Obviously being in LA helps, right? There's a lot of Latinos here. There's a lot of Latin culture here. But at the end of the day, you guys chose Lincoln Heights. And I know there's cloud kitchens everywhere. And so how did you guys go about that? Obviously Lincoln Heights is also very Latino. But how did you guys choose Lincoln Heights and were you looking at other options? And it just made the most sense. I think we really love, we love Lincoln Heights. We've been living in this, in downtown for many, many, many years. We're downtowners. So Lincoln Heights is really close. So we were familiar with this area and we love it. Also, one of the reasons which is Lincoln Heights is when you do delivery, you kind of want to be in the center and then go five miles radius, right? So choosing Lincoln Heights allow us to be able to deliver downtown, Echo Park, Glendale, Eagle Rock. So we can really touch a good part of the city. And the team here is also everybody is so kind, so nice. Sometimes that's the feel of Los Angeles. It's very inspiring because we, we, our neighbors are all this difference, you know, food concept and there is like, we're all like entrepreneurs here. So it's very inspiring. It feels like in some way you guys are kind of at the ground floor of this new world, right? It's like cloud kitchens are a new thing. Everyone's moving the marketing online. COVID hits. It makes perfect sense for you to be in that industry. And it's interesting to see how what's going to happen later. But I do love the fact that you guys still want to bring the culture aspect of Peruvian cuisine, which you kind of need a restaurant for. And so there's still that gap, but nonetheless for now you guys have found some success. And it sounds like things are going really well. So your recommendations for all entrepreneurs out there are 100%. Cloud kitchens make a lot of sense. Did you sign a long term lease? Is it like a two year lease, five year lease? How does that work? It's a one year, one year lease. Yeah, but I think you can do months to months. It's very flexible. It really is. And that's also a good point you mentioned that. Because usually when you do a commercial lease, a real restaurant, it's your tie for three years usually. Minimum, sometimes even more. Yeah, it's super high investment. One of the things we're doing, you mentioned this before where you were saying like food trucks, like cloud kitchen is the new food truck. We're doing this project here in West Hollywood where we're putting a coffee truck inside of a building. And so it used to be running around all LA and then COVID hit. So that got shut down. And who knows when crowds are going to be a thing again. And so we just said, well, this coffee truck is actually really, it's a really beautiful 1950s vehicle. And so we said, it's a Citroen. It's a French Citroen Citroen. It's a French old vehicle. And so we're putting it inside the building. And I think as we're doing it, I'm like, you know, this will be great because there's so many entrepreneurs. That have spent a lot of money building these food trucks out. And it would be cool if you just put them in a building because it's still cool, right? It's still branded. And that way, no one has to like lose their investment in the concept that they already have. And so whether they're making pizza or whatever it is. And since the, since it's a big box, it's already approved by the health department. And so it's kind of cool in that way where everything makes sense and the costs are already spent. Now I'm all about finding innovative way of serving food. I mean, 2020, you know, forces to sing that way. But now actually it's fun. It's actually a good thing, you know, to, to find new ways of serving food. But in reverse economy, you can actually set up a food operation in your home, in your house and serve people there. So things like that, I think we're going to see it more and more happening. Obviously the whole patio and outdoor dining is, is going to only get bigger. And our background, Ralph and I is really like the fine dining restaurant. And I, I don't know, hopefully we'll go back to that one day, but who knows. One of the final questions I have is if I haven't eaten in four days, what am I ordering from you guys? Right? So I'm super hungry. What are you going to bring out to me? What are the four, five, one, two things that I must have on the Aibara menu? Lomo saltado. Lomo saltado with beef, ceviche, for sure, the ceviche classico. The arroz chaufa, which is the fried rice with shrimp. That's like the, that's amazing. The rotisserie chicken sandwich, it's one of my favorite. And of course I have to pair it with Inca cola. Inca cola. Or cola inglesa. One of the things I wanted to circle back around to is something you said, Ralph, where neither you nor Caroline were professional chefs prior to opening up this ghost kitchen. And I used to work on Hell's Kitchen. And one of the things that Gordon Ramsay talked about was the distinction between a cook and a chef, you know, the difference between, oh, you might be able to cook for like a family gathering or whatever. But to be a professional chef means you have to cook precision accurate every single time, every single order that comes in. And that's not easy. I don't know from personal experience, but I know from close hand watching other people go through that, that transition from cook to chef. What was that like for you in learning how to become professional chefs after not having done this before? At the beginning, for me actually, I never cooked too much in my life to be honest. So how it works is my grandma taught Caroline, Caroline, talking to me. Well, I always love cooking. But that's like you said, I've always loved cooking at home for my friends, for my family. There's always been something of love. But then, yeah, once you start a real food business, then that's a whole different thing. You have regulation, you have to follow certain rules. Cooking at home is not the same like cooking in a real kitchen. And the consistency is key. And also the prep. That's for us was a whole thing that we underestimated the amount of prepping that you have to do in the morning. So you're ready for service. The mise en place. Yeah, the mise en place. So this was for us, I think, the most challenging. We had to rearrange your whole schedule because, oh, we're fine. Two hours before, we're going to be fine. No, no, no. You have to be here early in the morning to receive your deliveries, to inspect the product, and then store it, and then prep it, and then, you know, do all your sauces. And even for us that we have a ghost kitchen that it was, it's really small. You know, it's 125 square feet. So every single item has a specific space. If you move it, everything is wrong, you know, then you get lost. So we changed the way that, how do you call it? Yeah, we changed it three times. The layout, we changed it three times until we find the perfect one for, like, total efficiency. But now we're good. Yeah. Now it's all good. So you'd say that all the growing pains are over with, and you guys have kind of hit your stride? Yeah, in the first months, we had to scale back on the menu. So we sink after a week. We were like, okay, we have to take out of the menu maybe like four or five dishes. So we can really concentrate on making less dishes, but we make sure we make it good. And then slowly we reintegrated new dishes. So with that train of thought, are there any new dishes on the horizon that you are thinking of adding? Yes. Pescadolo macho. That one is a big one. And we've been working on the recipe for a long time now. It's actually overdue. We have to put it at the next one, Pescadolo macho. And then Tairin verde con milanesa. So that's the pesto, kind of, it's not completely pesto, but it's kind of like a pesto spaghetti dish with a chicken milanesa. So these two dishes are coming soon, really, really soon. You know, we don't have to hold you to this, but like give us an idea like how soon can we expect to be ordering? Okay, the pasta dish with the milanesa hopefully next week. This coming weekend or next week, the Pescadolo macho, I would say in two weeks. All right. By the time this is out, our listeners can try them. Listen, thanks guys for coming on the podcast and sharing a little bit about your story. Just tell everyone where they can find you guys, where they can support you guys, and where they can order. Yeah, thank you for having us guys. So we're I'm Mara Peruvian Kitchen. We are located on 242 North Avenue 25 in Lincoln Heights, Los Angeles. And you can find us on our website, I'm MaraPeruvianKitchen.com. You can order there. You can also order directly from Instagram. Yeah, just give us a call if you have any question. We're here every day. So if you order with us, you're going to see us giving you the food right to your car. I love it. Thank you guys for coming on the podcast. Appreciate it. Yeah, thank you. This was a pleasure. Thank you guys.