Husband and wife, Carlo “CJ” and Ashley Castrence came up with the idea of producing Filipino-inspired desserts at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What they thought would just become a hobby eventually became a part-time, to eventually a full-time gig. Their items started out with ube coconut white chocolate cookies, to ube cheesecakes, and then to pork belly lechon.

Their opportunity to create this hobby into a business started when Ashley’s cousin and mentor mentioned he was stepping away from the food industry and was looking to sell his food truck.

After acquiring the food truck, Ashley and CJ quickly found out that Ashley was pregnant. From there, they decided to focus on catering while Ashley was pregnant.

They’ve since grown their catering business while raising their daughter. Be sure to be on the lookout for Carley’s Kusina food truck!