Mihaela Boaru loves her work.
“There are days in the summertime when I’m in the kitchen from 5 a.m. until 2 a.m., but I never think of it as work,” says Boaru, co-owner and operator of the Schnitzel Shack at the Squamish Farmers’ Market.
Originally from Romania, Boaru and her husband moved in 2007 to Canada from Japan, where she had worked as a translator. “When I moved here, I was still doing translation but I was pretty much stuck in front of a computer… it was boring.” Feeling demotivated, she wanted a plan B and to meet friends.
So one day she visited the farmers’ market and says she came away wanting to be part of it. “Something happened while I was there. I just really liked it.”
Encouraged by friends, she had her first stall in summer 2010 selling vegetable spreads. But people were unfamiliar with her product and she was only just breaking even.
So when the Santa parade was announced that year, her husband suggested to her, “Cabbage rolls are so popular in your home country, why don’t you make a pot of them to sell?”
First, they needed a commercial kitchen. Renting was too expensive, so they sold their investments and built their own, working day and night for two weeks to install it. “There was lots of work, lots of beer and lots of friends,” she explains. But it was worthwhile: The cabbage rolls were a success.
She became pregnant soon after but there was no time for rest as she’d booked market stalls in both Whistler and Squamish. Then they had another problem: Without a food cart, one can sell hot food for only 14 days of the year, Boaru explains.
They had searched everywhere for one but with just two more weekends left on their permit, things weren’t looking great. At the very last minute, an old hot dog stand appeared on Craigslist and they snapped it up. “It was perfect,” she says.
With this new cart, a new menu item (sausages) and a baby, life was certainly busy and Boaru juggled motherhood with multiple markets and events, including the five-day Bass Coast Music Festival and Squamish Valley Music Festival (during which she served 4,000 meals over six days to volunteers).
Schnitzels were added to the menu and sales soon eclipsed those of cabbage rolls, which are now only sold frozen.
On reflection there have been many challenges, one of which is time, she explains. “We can see so many opportunities… and it’s really just finding the time to make it all happen.”
She says her daughter makes it all worthwhile, however. She also loves hearing customers say, “This tastes just like my grandma used to make it.”
“That’s what we are. Homemade, comfort food that reminds you of growing up.”
Owning a business isn’t easy, she says, “but never give up, and always listen to what your customers tell you because even when you think you’re right, you’re not.”
Visit the Schnitzel Shack at the Winter Squamish Farmers’ Market, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Squamish Elementary School, and throughout the summer, as well as at the Whistler and Vancouver markets.
