Maria Petit Food Boutique in Auburndale
Maria, owner of Maria Petit Food Boutique
I'm speaking with Maria Franco, the owner of Maria Petit Food Boutique in Auburndale, Florida. She discusses how she started the business five years ago, cooking out of a commercial kitchen after leaving her career as a process engineer specializing in food. Her business focuses on customized healthy meal prep delivery services, as well as operating a small café open a few days a week. She serves healthy food packed with flavor, featuring an ever-changing menu to keep your palate delighted with new tastes. Best of all, Maria will customize her food to meet your dietary needs. If you follow a gluten-free or dairy-free diet, Maria Petit Food Boutique is the perfect place for you. You can enjoy her food either at her café or opt for delivery or pickup at partnered locations.
For more details, check out our interview below.
Bacon Wrapped Chicken, Flavorful and Delicious.
Cozy cafe, it feels like dining at a friend’s home
Q: Please introduce yourself and your business name?
A: I'm Maria Franco. My business is Maria Petit Food Boutique right here in downtown Auburndale. And we are specialized in meal prep, but you can also come in and dine with us.
We have a lot of other stuff, like let's say you want a basket for a friend, or you have a friend that is sick and you want to take a special gift, like a treat for them. We can do that. So we have a lot of different things going on.
Q: What kind of food do you specialize in?
A: We do work like a health on the health side. So we try to have gluten-free, dairy-free. We try to accommodate on that side. That's what we are looking for.
Healthy and Flavorful
Q: Do you find that a lot of people are looking for those things these days, that they have a lot of health restrictions and specifications?
A: Yes, more and more we see people coming in and have a lot of difficult and finding places where they can go and people can actually accommodate them.
I mean, even if I have a plate that it's not, it has like, let's say dairy and you want me to take it off for you, I'll absolutely do that. So that's what we want to do. We want to keep it small and we want to keep it in the community so we can, you know, help everybody.
Q: You customize and do special orders for customers?
A: Yes, I do that. I do have options, but you know, if you want something special, it's always better. At least you call ahead and let me know what you need.
Q: And I remember you also mentioned that you primarily serve Brazilian food as well.
A: I do have Brazilian food. And the community is growing a lot. But that's not my main type of food here. But I do have that because I am Brazilian. So I have all the community. And I want to serve them also. Oh, yes. See, I can't tell. Like every Friday, we have the most popular plate in Brazil. It's called feijoada. It's a black bean with a lot of beef inside and bacon. And so every Friday I have that for the community to come in and have that. It's a special treat. So if you're Brazilian and you want Brazilian food, come here on Friday.
Q: What inspired you to start this business?
A: I have a background. I am actually a process engineer. And what? Process engineer. Yes. But I'm specialized in food. So that's how I end up here. I came with a Brazilian company that called Cutrale Citrus Juice. It's right here in Auburndale. Yes, that's how we end up here.
And I came, me and my husband, I worked for the company a long time. And when I had my babies, I decided to kind of stop and, you know, take care of them. My boy had a lot of food allergies. Yes. So that's how it started, you know, taking on that side.
So I started cooking special things for him and at home and then friends started asking, can you give me the recipe? Can you do this for me? And when I saw, I was like cooking a lot and doing a lot of stuff for people until one day, one of these friends said, Maria, why don't you start charging?
And it's like, you know, so I'm like, hmm, let's make it a business then. And that's how, you know, everything just clicked then took us a while, you know, about two and three years. figure out what I want to do and this and that but here we are.
Q: What are some of your earlier challenges to getting started in this business?
A: Well, first was the location because if you think about it, it's like, oh, why are we all there? You know, this is so different. And I knew it was going to be a challenge because people, you know, it's a smaller city and people still are right. And they go a lot out to other places to Lakeland to Winter Haven, right? So I knew it was going to be a challenge for people to really know I'm here and thank you guys for doing this because it's going to help me a lot.
Q: How has the feedback from your customers been?
A: Pretty much the feedback is always good, everybody. Achieving what I want, you know, for people to feel home, to be comfortable, to come, and the customers become friends, you know, everybody comes in and we are talking, and they come in, they tell me their problems, like friends.
Q: Would you say that your restaurant business or your food service is more of the bulk of what you do?
A: The meal prep is where I started and is still what I do most of the time. That's why I'm closed Monday and Tuesdays because we come here and we produce a lot of meals and we deliver. So we have actually I have also other partners like with the gyms So I have a habitat in Winter Haven and I have hot works in Lakeland Where yeah, I produce all the meals for their people So I have a special menu that they tell me hey, Maria We are you want our people to eat this and that and I produce for net So right now I do that with habitat in Winter Haven and hot works in Lakeland.
Q: Could you talk a little bit more about how your meal plan works? If a customer wants to order, how do they do it and when do you deliver to them?
A: So if you want to order for the following week, every Friday by 6, the order needs to be in for Monday pick up. Because Monday is the day. it's a really busy day everybody wants to start the week right so I need the order by Friday and people just can text it over to us you know with your order and your name how many meals and now have it ready you can either pick it up over here or we can deliver or you can go to one of our locations habitat our hot works and pick it up there if you are a member of you know those locations yes I do have a refrigerator there where I just drop off and they go and grab it yes and actually I really want to have more places you know where I can just have the meals there and people can just pick it up so that would be a pickup location.
Q: How do you see a business evolving in the future? And what kind of goals do you have for growing or expanding?
A: Well, I have two things that I really want to get going. First one is like I told you, I really want other locations to have the meals. So I'm really working on that right now. I bought a machine a couple of months ago where I sealed all the meals. So they are because they used to go, you know, there's containers and it just opened. No, now they are all sealed and they have the nutritional facts.
And the second part is the part where I want to become more like a food boutique and have a lot of the community and a lot of things here where people just say, oh, I really want that specific product that is from a local guy.
