Maricsa Trejo
Pastry Chef/Owner, La Casita Bakeshop | Richardson, TX
December 2021
Texas native Maricsa Trejo knew she was going to work in the food industry from an early age. Fresh out of high school, she studied culinary arts at Dallas College El Centro Community Campus, but learned more by observing the kitchen at her Omni Dallas Hotel job. In 2013, she took a garde manger position at Oak where Pastry Chef Lucía Merino took Trejo under her wing. When an email exchange with Pastry Chef Stephen Collucci landed her a stage at Colicchio & Sons, Trejo bought a car, packed up her things, and moved to New York City. Over her year in the Big Apple, Collucci taught Trejo to learn from her mistakes—to not dwell over flour, water, and sugar.
She spent the next year traveling around the world, baking at Grand Central Bakery in Portland, Oregon, reconnecting with Merino to open Lucía Pâtisserie in Puerto Rico, and staging in Thailand. When she returned to Dallas in 2016, she took over Small Brewpub's pastry program where her now husband and business partner, Alex Henderson, worked as executive chef. She traded fresh bread for kitchen space, and launched La Casita Bakeshop (a “Spanglish” name that pays homage to Trejo’s Mexican-American heritage) out of the back of the restaurant. In 2020, Trejo and Henderson moved their pastry shop to a brick-and-mortar location in Richardson and, by 2022, La Casita Bakeshop will expand down the block to a second, larger location, continuing to sell Trejo’s Mexican-inflected pastries and bread.
2021 StarChefs Dallas Rising Stars Pastry Chef Award Winner presented by TCHO Chocolate
