When Andrea Cruz decided to launch a charcuterie business during the height of the pandemic in 2020, she was really just leaning into the traditions she was raised on.
“In Hispanic culture, food is the center of our life,” she said. “If you enter a Hispanic home, you're not leaving hungry, regardless of whatever social, economic level that home is at.”
That feeling of abundance and togetherness became the foundation of Hungry Drea Creations. For Cruz, Hungry Drea is more than just cheese and fruit arranged on a board. It’s a way of bringing people together, rooted in the same cultural values that shaped her life. And that, she says, will always be the main drive.
But Cruz, an immigrant from Peru, hadn’t planned on becoming an entrepreneur.
“How did it happen? The short answer is COVID.”
Before the world shut down, she had worked in the natural products industry, where she spent her days doing demonstrations inside luxury grocery stores like Whole Foods, Sprouts, Gelsons and Lazy Acres.
“That's actually how I became exposed to cheese, because when the stores would be slow, I would walk around the store and I would find myself in the wine department, which happens to be next to the cheese department.”
When that job ended during the months of lockdown, Cruz decided to give a side project she’d tested months earlier a real chance.
“Before COVID, I actually did a trial run for Valentine's Day of 2020. And when COVID came and the shutdown happened, a few of the people that had ordered for that first run started messaging me. ‘Hey, are you still doing this? Are you still doing this?’ And I was like, I guess I can.”
From there, Cruz began to develop what would set her plating style apart from others. In the years she’s been in business, she’s become known for meticulous detail. Oh, and everything on her boards are edible.
“I always get someone asking whether something like the cup I put the olives in is edible, and I'm like, yeah, it's actually made of cane sugar, so technically, you can eat it. I just don't know if you want to,” she said, laughing.
She also keeps her sourcing close to home.
“I try to shop local as much as possible. The majority of my produce does come from the local farmers market, like I have my berry guy, and I only go to him.”
It’s no secret that the charcuterie and grazing trend took off during the pandemic. But in the years that lockdown has faded further into the rearview mirror, business has slowed, Cruz admitted.
“The biggest challenge is probably just to stay motivated,” she shared. “The creating and making, that's easy, that's my fun, but it's the reaching out and getting the business and the marketing that can be difficult.”
Still, Cruz holds onto the lessons she’s learned, one of those lessons being that she loves working for herself.
“If I'm willing to make money for a random person, why was I not willing to do it for myself?”
And to those just starting out, she insists: “Your price is your price. If you don't set your worth, people are not going to value it.”
In Hispanic culture, food is the center of our life. If you enter a Hispanic home, you're not leaving hungry, regardless of whatever social, economic level that home is at.