Houston Chronicle reporter Marggiana Sanchez writes: It's sweet, it's salty, it's bitter and it's sour. The (American pronunciation) hayaca ... Venezuela's traditional Christmas dish hallaca ... has arrived in Houston and is looking to go mainstream.

Hallacas are corn cakes of sorts, wrapped in plantain leaves and tied with string, that come stuffed with beef, pork, chicken and condiments such as capers, raisins and olives.

Preparing Venezuelan hallacas is a traditional Christmas family activity

For Venezuelans, Christmas without hallacas is no Christmas at all.

That tie to tradition is something Venezuela native Nahir Gazzaneo realizes could help spread her catering among Houston's growing Venezuelan community ... and perhaps beyond.

Two years ago, she plunged into the catering business out of her home with a minuscule investment of US$450 ... today, she's making plans to start up a website and open a storefront location.  If sales for this month are any indication, Gazzaneo might make her dream a reality.

Earlier this month, for example, she had to buy an electric corn mixer, a food preparation table and a refrigerator to help handle the overflow of business. But those expenses have already been recovered through the sale of hallacas. And since the middle of this year, Gazzaneo has been able to direct some of her revenues toward advertising.

"We get the word out about our business by purchasing ads in three Spanish-language publications, among them el Venezolano de Houston," she said. "For that we pay $300 a month, but we also purchased 5,000 fliers and 2,000 business cards in June for $500. Business is good, but we can always use more clientele and publicity."

VHeadline.com News Editor Patrick J. O'Donoghue celebrates 'Navidad'
with family and friends in Barquisimeto, central-west Lara State

Using available means: M&N Projects & Services, as her business is called, relies solely on the family vehicle to make its deliveries.  Her business generates $3,500 a month for her family of five. That amounts to 50% of the family's former income because five months ago her husband lost his job as an electrical engineer and has been working odd jobs since then.

"Fortunately, things have gone pretty well for us, in spite of that," Gazzaneo said. But slow business has never been a problem for M&N Projects & Services, which, at first, relied on word of mouth to generate business.

Gazzaneo (36) who worked in marketing for 15 years back home before immigrating to Houston in 2002, has also relied on the Internet to get her business off the ground. She used it to investigate the sale of hallacas ... which go for $5 apiece ... and other typical Venezuelan foods in Miami, which has a much larger Venezuelan community.

Nowadays, thanks to her constant networking and marketing strategies, she has clients in Texas cities Jacksonville, Madisonville and San Antonio.

December favorites: Since August of this year, Gazzaneo has been so swamped with back orders for hallacas that she's been working 17-hour days. Fortunately, however, her mother, Nair Sotillo, has decided to spend her Christmas vacation here, cooking alongside her daughter.  Other family members are regularly put to work, and when the company is hired to do large parties and banquets, Gazzaneo brings on help for $6 an hour.  Her menu offers a wide variety of foods, but the company's biggest moneymaker is the hallaca and its accompanying side dishes: ham-stuffed bread, chicken salad, sweet corn cake and dark fruit cake, all of which are typically sold during December.

Plenty of business: Gazzaneo is not the only hallaca-cooking Venezuelan in town, and she's well aware of it.  "Houston is such a large city that one can't really say 'Oh, somebody stole my client.' There's opportunity here for everyone," she said. And up to now that seems to be the case. Her client list includes 30 regulars, as well as local Venezuelan restaurants Miguelito's and La Gran Reina Pepiada.

For Gazzaneo's business to truly take off, she's going to have to cross over into the mainstream food service arena and penetrate not only other Hispanic groups but other ethnic groups as well, said James B. Evans, assistant regional director of the University of Houston's Small Business Development Center.  He recommends that entrepreneurs like Gazzaneo take the time to do research on the feasibility of their expansion costs before they invest large amounts of money into it.

One way to figure that out is with invitation-only parties for target clients to test their interest. "If this business is already selling commercially, the likelihood of them being able to translate that success into a mainstream arena is very strong," Evans said. Other counselors at the small-business center seem to agree.

They have recommended, according to Gazzaneo, that she open a storefront location where she can offer her hallacas to a widespread mainstream clientele.

The next step: Gazzaneo, however, is still not ready for that next step, but she hopes that within the next two years she will be. In the meantime, however, she is preparing to launch a virtual storefront on the Internet within two months, where she can continue to market her company to a wider audience.

And even though Gazzaneo embraces the comparison of the hallaca to the tamale, Evans warns that the important thing for entrepreneurs is to distinguish their products or services from what's already out there.  "You can't be a 'me too' company ... you've got to offer something unique."

This article was originally published in the Houston Chronicle
(we corrected the American spelling: hayaca = hallaca)

Photography: Santiago Padilla