Taza Catering – Scottsdale Arizona

Husband and wife lovebirds. We do everything together and we made this dream come true!

How We Got Started

Where to begin?  Nick: Husband extraordinaire. The brain that holds this whole thing together. The patient rock that allows Sandra to roam free and get creative. Nick is an engineer by profession and a process guru who can solve any problem just by examining every aspect. How to efficiently build the kitchen shelves? How to stock our inventory without wasting food? How to eliminate waste and stay compliant with food safety? And keep our finances in check.

Sandra: The vision, the food creation, the flavour, the service. Sandra is focused on customer satisfaction. Her background in marketing gives her an edge on menu design, website design and overall atmosphere of the restaurant. Her management skills allow her to handle employee issues and juggle managing the kitchen and all aspects of the customer experience from beginning to end. Plus her attention to detail is uncanny.

Once Upon a Time

Nick and Sandra have been married for over a decade. They met in Portland, Oregon on a dating website. A cliché to a couple that actually made it. They both had office jobs (Engineer and Marketer - did you not read this above?) They moved to Tucson because of a job transfer for Nick, and Sandra couldn’t pack her bags fast enough, mostly full of swim suits, leaving her heavy rain coats behind.

After a couple of years in Tucson, they both decided they are made for the big city, and so off to Phoenix they went. Still both in Engineering and Marketing jobs. Sandra loved to hate her job for 5 years: working hard, long hours, building websites, managing marketing teams, handling social media, until one day she decided she needed a change.

Nick and Sandra always dreamed of starting their own food truck “when we retire.” One day Nick said: why wait? Let’s just do it while we have the energy! Sandra took that to heart. And it hasn’t been an easy journey.

First Thing's First

Where do we even begin? So Sandra invited all their friends and made a sampling of food and sauces. She marinated 3 kinds of chicken flavors, and 4 types of sauces. She made beef and pork too, and grilled veggies.

Hence was the birth of the PROTEIN BOWLS.

Friends ate, drank and voted. And we decided on what is now known as the chicken protein bowl and the beef kabab protein bowl. The sauces that were selected are now our tahini and aioli sauces. Together they form an indescribable burst of euphoria in your mouth. You just have to try it to understand what we’re talking about.

So Now What?

I guess we have two protein bowls to start with: a chicken with veggies over rice and a beef kabab with veggies over rice. There was also the pulled pork bowl that was super popular among friends, but maybe our friends are just a few of the pork-eating population??? We decided we needed something else to start with besides the bowls, so we went with a wrap or a salad instead of rice to compliment the protein.

We also added the panini: smoked turkey and grilled chicken and veggie panini. Because who doesn’t love a toasty, cheesy sandwich?

Our very first event was a sporting event called Rugged Maniac. It was the perfect fit: healthy food for healthy athletic adventurous people. It was a match made in heaven for our first event (shhh, don’t tell them we were rookies, I mean we had our health licenses and passed our food managers exams). We do things the right way. And we are anal, mostly Sandra, but what can we say?

How Did it Go?

Very well thank you! One of our best events in fact. Lots of sales, people stood in line to eat our food. Only one person got too impatient waiting and wanted her money back, but the rest raved about the food, the quality, the flavor, the healthiness of the ingredients. It was perfect!