Banking on KC – Marissa Gencarelli of Yoli Tortilleria
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Kelly Scanlon:
Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Marissa Gencarelli, the co-founder and owner of Yoli Tortilleria. Welcome Marissa.
Marissa Gencarelli:
Hi, how are you?
Kelly Scanlon:
I'm great. And I want to make sure to congratulate you on your recent honor. You're the 2023 James Beard Award winner for outstanding bakery. And I think you beat out four other finalists. Is that right?
Marissa Gencarelli:
Yes, that's correct.
Kelly Scanlon:
Four other finalists.
Marissa Gencarelli:
It's a nationwide one.
Kelly Scanlon:
Exactly, across the nation. So tell us about that experience. What's it like? I know that the James Beard Award is a huge deal, but I really don't know what all goes into it. So take us through that.
Marissa Gencarelli:
A lot of it goes into it, and I did not know all the details. So the year prior, we were nominated as bakers. We made it to semi-finalists, but then we didn't make to the next stage of finalist. There's a whole process. Somebody nominates you. We have no idea who did that, incredibly grateful for that. And then there's a voting round, and then you pass from semi-finalist to finalist.
Kelly Scanlon:
Who votes?
Marissa Gencarelli:
They have a committee. So the James Beard Foundation has a committee, as I understand it, and it's all kinds of backgrounds and different things. Also, they have an ability to kind of double check that, yeah, you are legit, and make sure that you are a good citizen and you're good to your employees and all those different ethic values that they have.
So then get through semifinalist. And we thought we were doing great as a semifinalist. We were very happy. We were surprised. A second year in a row, it's not very common. And then after that, it does go for a nationwide vote, and that is a lot bigger. When we passed from semifinalists to finalists, we were just honored to be finalists, but we figured we didn't really have much of a chance just because, A, it's in a bakery category. And even though tortillas, I would call them the original Mesoamerican bread, Kansas City is a smaller market in comparison to other nominees, when you see they are from the coast.
And so, yeah, we were just very happy about it. So there's votes, and then it goes to some sort of... Again, my guess is it goes to another kind of committee or board. And the result comes in, and you go to this really fancy event, very Oscars like. There's actual red carpet and you walk in, and you have to dress up. And it's just a whole thing, and it was certainly new for us to be doing something like that. A lot of the chefs around us, they have PR people and handlers. We don't have a handler. We both come from big corporate jobs, so it's like for us, this is just completely new world.
Kelly Scanlon:
Oh, well deserved, it sounds like. You mentioned you had corporate jobs prior to founding Yoli. You worked in healthcare technology at Cerner.
Marissa Gencarelli:
Yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
So what inspired you to leave that, and to follow this passion and launch Yoli?
Marissa Gencarelli:
I think it's all timing. I had been there for a long time. I had the most amazing experience working for incredible leaders in Kansas City. Some of them went on and built on other big companies, and now they're CEOs of other companies. To be part of that group of people in Kansas City, it was quite an honor, and it was really a very good education for me as an entrepreneur. I think, in general, anyone that worked at Cerner in those early days, like I did, entrepreneurship is kind of part of our DNA. It's no longer the same. Obviously, now has changed quite a bit, since they got acquired and everything.
I think that one of the reasons that I start kind of needing a hobby was that things were changing already at the company. It gets to a certain size that it is no longer the same. And to de-stress, I started cooking. And it was the only thing that I could just put down my phone. It's a very good therapy. So it really started as a therapy. And Mark, my husband, he's incredible also to the grainy details of bakery as well. So between both of us, that was our de-stress. It was really, really fun.
Kelly Scanlon:
When did you know that you actually had a business on your hands?
Marissa Gencarelli:
We saw the need in this market in Kansas City because we knew what good tortillas were. I'm from Sonora, Mexico, and there was nothing like that here that we thought, "Hey, this resembles to Marissa's hometown." And so we knew that there was an opportunity. I was a little skeptical. That's why I didn't leave my job until two years ago, three years in Yoli, just because it's like I did not know how much it would actually grow. And so I think that that continues to surprise us.
Kelly Scanlon:
What influenced Yoli's offerings in style? Were these recipes you grew up with? Are they ones you've developed more recently? Tell us about that.
Marissa Gencarelli:
So a lot of the recipes, it was a lot of sticking to the traditional processes that I grew up with. So we did go to my hometown and actually did train there. And so we were there for a couple of weeks, and we met with tortilleros and tortilleras and really hone in our craft and our techniques. But one of the things that we really wanted to distinguish ourselves is that sometimes you see... Say you wanted to do some French croissant and your only way to do it is to bring that French butter. Yeah, it would be nice, but what would be really even better if you source from around you, locally. And that's kind of like... You see a lot of really high end tortillas out there that they're just importing corn. That's great. We do import corn from time to time, but what I really wanted to focus is, what's available to us? What's around us? How can we support our own economy?
I want to see that those farmer kids go to school and my taxes going to it. So that's our overall ethos, just making sure that, hey, we want to be really unique, and we want to make sure that we're honoring the origin of this tortilla, but we want to go ahead and source what's around us. And if you think about it with all foods around the world, really, people build the most beautiful meals with what's around them. It's a multifaceted reason why we do this. It's environmentally, economically... It's better for our economy, we build a stronger community, and I really do think we build a better product.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes. And there's a lot of people who would agree with you. That's for sure. You mentioned multifaceted. You're also multifaceted in terms of your business. You have a manufacturing plant, you have your retail store, and you even have a bit of a publishing arm. Tell us a little bit about each one of those.
Marissa Gencarelli:
Yeah. So obviously, we have our facility where we go ahead and do all of our products, our tortillas. We also make salsas, aggua frescas, tamales, and we're really getting into different masa shapes. And then we have our retail experience. That was really pivotal for us because I wanted a place that I can actually talk directly to the consumers.
The other thing is we did have a hard time entering grocery stores. A lot of people don't understand our product. They don't understand our category. It's like we're not the run-of-the-mill tortilla that's going to be in the shelves with preservatives and all that. Our tortilla's different. And so a lot of people, a lot of the buyers, still to this day, they still scratch their head, don't understand why people keep on coming to their shop and requesting our tortillas. So that was part of the idea of having a retail space, a place that we can go ahead and showcase it, that we can share with people, and also tell the story of what makes that product unique.
And so if you come in, whether it's myself or whoever is in the retail shop, we'll go ahead and talk to you like, "Well, this salsa goes great with X, Y and Z, and this is why." So I kind of wanted to go ahead and curate that experience, and it just kind falls into the publications that we do. We do small format books. They're called Zines, and it's all about some of them are really focused on an ingredient, and others on a region. It tells a history of the ingredient. And they're self-published because we do touch socioeconomical and political issues, because food is complicated.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yes.
Marissa Gencarelli:
And there's a lot of things that change how you value a tortilla. They talk a lot of different types of subjects. They also touch a lot of personal storytelling. So I will go back and think about the first time that I remember touching masa and things like that. And of course, we have recipes, lots of different recipes, because I want people to get creative, and get out there and do their own thing.
Kelly Scanlon:
I always feel like when a meal is especially good, or in your case, your tortillas and your other products, people rave about them, I always feel it's because that history and that passion comes through in the making of them. And it certainly sounds like you bring a lot of that to the table.
Marissa Gencarelli:
Yeah. If I'm not doing that, then I need to go back to corporate, right? It's like for me, this is the reason what we're doing what we're doing, and we put everything on the line.
Kelly Scanlon:
Where's your retail store located?
Marissa Gencarelli:
On the Westside neighborhood, so 17th and Jefferson. And we are about to go through a transformation. That was the location that we used to also make our flour tortillas, but we since have moved that out, and we are going to be a small restaurant, like a 10 seat restaurant.
Kelly Scanlon:
When's this going to happen?
Marissa Gencarelli:
Hopefully by end of fall.
Kelly Scanlon:
End of fall. Okay, so coming up here. In your manufacturing plant, where do they go from there? What is your distribution range?
Marissa Gencarelli:
So our distribution right now is primarily Kansas City, Lawrence, and we are doing things in St. Louis, Oklahoma City, some limited things in Chicago, Seattle, Texas.
Kelly Scanlon:
So they're getting around.
Marissa Gencarelli:
They're getting around, yeah. And that's more wholesale, big wholesale accounts. And then of course, we ship nationally, so there's... I think the only state we have not shipped to is Hawaii, is because we don't allow it because we feel like it would take too long to ship, and we are afraid that product would go bad.
Kelly Scanlon:
Right. There's a freshness aspect there you have to maintain. Has winning the James Beard Award increased calls for the product?
Marissa Gencarelli:
Oh, absolutely. It's overnight, they tell you. It's funny, in the award ceremony, one of the presenters talked about how much James Beard changes your life, and it really truly does. Overnight, you become recognizable. People will know who you are. Overnight, we were getting interviews from people in Mexico City from the largest newspaper that it's like, oh my god, pinch me now. I had no idea. And then you're doing interviews with Al Jazeera. The reach is incredible, global media just really reaching out. And there's a lot of reasons. I think one of them is, A, we were the first winners of the category, and B, it wasn't given to traditional French bread or traditional bread.
Kelly Scanlon:
Right.
Marissa Gencarelli:
And I think that was a history in itself.
Kelly Scanlon:
You're also working on getting one of your sauces, Taco Stand, distributed in grocery stores across the country. How's that going?
Marissa Gencarelli:
It's going. It's going. So we finally got all of our bottling and labels ready and everything. So it always takes a little bit longer than what you expect. And so hopefully, we'll see them in shelves here soon, so working through it.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah, we'll be watching for that. Sure. You have managed your company over the last six years from just you and your husband up to, I believe, about 15 employees or so, and now a James Beard win in the mix as well. How have you managed that growth?
Marissa Gencarelli:
This is where I think that us coming from a strong corporate background is very helpful, because we have a lot of those foundational organization skills. And obviously, it's kind of funny because we think, God, I wish we had HR, we had all these different branches that you're used to when you have a large corporation. But I think that that has really informed us how we do our company. From the very beginning, we have this... My mentor was Cliff Illig when I was at Cerner, and he is a planner, and he will tell you you have to write the experience that You're wanting to do and all these details. And from very early on, we did that with Yoli.
So we really said, "This is what we want it to be. This is how we want it to look like. As we grow, what kind of company do we want to be?" It's like you got to ask those questions. And then of course, people kind of get really scared when I say this, and what your exit will be. That's one lesson that I learned from Cerner now. It's like, what's your exit? And I'm not saying that we're exiting anytime soon, but you got to figure out, are you going to give this to your children? Are you going to sell it to your employees? What is it going to look like? And you have to have that ready.
Kelly Scanlon:
That's a very hard thing for a startup to do because you're just trying to get the doors open and you're trying to get your product or service out there. And you're like, "What do you mean I have to know how I'm going to exit?" So, yeah.
Marissa Gencarelli:
You don't have to have your details baked out, but you have to know in your heart and in agreement. It's just goal setting.
Kelly Scanlon:
You may not see yourself as an activist, but you are a proponent of sustainable farming. You talked a little bit about using local ingredients a little earlier. So talk to us about your efforts in that area.
Marissa Gencarelli:
Yeah, so I've been very fortunate to work with incredible partners here in Kansas City. One of them is Paradise Locker Meats. Up here in Trimble, Missouri, they source the most beautiful pork fat. They're so diligent of where they're sourcing everything. And in fact, I have a good friend of mine now that he actually goes through Paradise Locker. He sells their hogs and all these kind of different things. And I really have learned about all the processes and what it means to be sustainable. And not only sustainable anymore, I think it's regenerative, because we got to leave it better than what it was. And so I think that I'm very passionate being in the Midwest. Obviously, the state of Kansas is not in a very good shape right now. The agriculture sector, there's a lot of... We're not getting enough water, a lot of crops did not work out this year.
And so I think that, I don't know, if my buying power can do anything to go ahead and incentivize people to do things in a better way. I think that was good. I'm very much into the overall idea that we change businesses based on how we do our purchases, because it has to be not only are we taking care of the land, but it has to make sense business wise, right?
Kelly Scanlon:
You have to marry both of those. And you've taken that message nationally. I believe you even provided some testimony to Congress about cover crops.
Marissa Gencarelli:
Yeah, I was part of a group of chefs that went out there, along with the James Beard Foundation and others, and we went ahead and just basically talked to our representatives and tell them, "Hey, I'm a consumer of corn. This is why this is really important. I'm sourcing it here locally. And guess what? We're having a lot of trouble because X, Y and Z." And I always told them how many pounds I'm using per day. And I'm a small company, and I want to grow and everything. And I want to grow the state of Kansas, I want to grow the state of Missouri. I'm committed here. So I need your support for us to do the right thing, so we can have a longer yield of agriculture in Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon:
Awareness and education are the first step.
Marissa Gencarelli:
Yes.
Kelly Scanlon:
Kansas City has experienced a lot of firsts recently. We've had the NFL draft, the upcoming World Cup. We've got the first pro women's soccer stadium in the country, and now, the first James Beard Award winner in the bakery category. Where do you see more opportunities for Kansas City in the future?
Marissa Gencarelli:
I think that We're doing a great job. I think that we are attracting more and more talent. I think that in the past, that has been our kind of little struggle. We're making our city very attractive to other people from the coast and other places that they... And also having our talent stay here and spun out other companies. And I think that That's incredibly important. I think we're doing a really good job. I love what we're doing in the culinary scene. I do think we could do more.
Kelly Scanlon:
Such as?
Marissa Gencarelli:
Obviously, we're pretty known for barbecue, and that's awesome, I love it too, but I think we have something very special going on with other types of cuisines. And I think that we need to work harder on highlighting those. I think that we could grow more of that.
Kelly Scanlon:
Where does Yoli go from here?
Marissa Gencarelli:
It's funny, when you asked me about the different facets of Yoli that we have, the reality, the way we see it, is that Yoli is about creating experiences. And so whether it's you buy our tortillas and you experience something different, you read our Zine, you go to a retail, you eat one of my meals, anything like that, it's all about enhancing the experience and the knowledge about how rich culinary is Mexico and how it can be different, and so on. So we will probably spun off a lot of more different experiences. And ideally, I would love to see the ability to go ahead and create more products that you take home and you kind of experience a different meal.
A lot of people ask me a lot of questions. They send me DMs constantly, are like, "How do I do this, or make this and that recipe?" I want to see people doing it at home just in a different way. If you go to a large Mexican market, it's always very confusing. Any ethnic markets, you go in there and you kind of do not know what to pair with what, what to do with this or that, unless you're to come in with your list and you kind of know your way around. So I would like to see more access on that.
Kelly Scanlon:
Yeah. So it sounds like you might have something like a YouTube channel in the making, where you could actually educate people and show them, demonstrate to them
Marissa Gencarelli:
Yeah, between that and providing them just the actual products for them to be able to do it.
Kelly Scanlon:
Thank you so much for coming here today. Congratulations again on the James Beard Award win, and for bringing this to Kansas City. It is such an honor for you and for the whole city to experience that with you. And we'll be looking for the opening of your restaurant here real soon.
Marissa Gencarelli:
Yep. Thank you so much.
Joe Close:
This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Marissa Gencarelli for being our guest on this episode of Banking on KC. As the co-founder of Yoli Tortilleria, Marissa is bringing the authentic flavors of Mexico to Kansas City. She's also bringing global attention to Kansas City with a recent James Beard Award in the first time ever category of outstanding bakery. As she concluded her acceptance speech, she said, "Thank you for helping us honor the very humble tortilla. Kansas City is a lot like Yoli's tortillas. Like Yoli's, we've recently scored some big wins, the NFL draft, World Cup, and others. And just as the tortilla is not a pretentious food, Kansas City is not pretentious either. Like Yoli's tortillas, however, we are authentic. And at the end of the day, we deliver, and people have noticed."
Thanks for tuning in this week. We're banking on you, Kansas City. Country Club Bank, member FDIC.