Today we’d like to introduce you to Alli Sagstume.
Alli, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I guess you can say that my journey started at the age of 13. I became a vegetarian in a heavy meat-eating Hispanic family, I started cooking for myself with a bare minimum knowledge of both vegetarianism and cooking. I went to culinary school for baking and patisserie to learn more about the science of food and after graduating I continued learning and shifting the way I ate and viewed food.
After several years of traveling, cooking traditional foods abroad, spending months with Indigenous Mayan elders to learn plant medicine and agriculture, and growing my own garden, the foundation for TUME started to begin- the seeds had been planted. I moved to Portland, OR in 2017, being surrounded by local organic produce, meeting local farmers, and a plethora of vegan chefs, it inspired me to really push myself to grow TUME how i always imagined it and to really give the community a space to be mindful on what they ate along with being able to acknowledge the history of my Peruvian and Guatemalan roots.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
We began our business just months before COVID-19 started, I didn’t grow into a wealthy family, so all the start-up finances were solely from me, and having a pandemic begin just months after opening a business was far from ideal to help me be financially stable.
This caused a lot of our in-person pop-ups to be canceled or postponed and caused us to shift several ways on how to run our business. Instead of pop-ups we did food/treat non-contact deliveries around the community and wholesale collaborations with other small businesses.
Even though we had a rough start, we knew that we had to show up for our community during the pandemic. We were able to get together with other local small businesses and gave out free meals to families in need, it meant a lot to be able to give to the community that helped begin TUME and once we were able to do food pop-ups again the community gave back to us to help us continue growing.
4 years later, we had to go through another financial burden when we had to suddenly move from Portland and move back home to Orlando to help my folks out. Starting TUME all over again in a different city was a huge setback. Everything we had saved had gone into moving back and the startup costs of TUME. We began vending in the summer of ’22 which was difficult, to say the least, we couldn’t find many farmers to source our produce from, not many places were available to host us and when we did do pop-ups many people in Orlando weren’t sure about us and our concept yet since we were new in the scene. We tried to pivot to different ways to bring income in but none met any success like it did in Portland. We were fortunate to reconnect with our favorite farmers market, Audubon Community Market, and started vending there a year later. There we were able to meet so many wonderful folks who appreciated a plant-based and farm to table concept of dining and also connect with several local farmers.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
I create plant-focused foods and desserts inspired by my Peruvian & Guatemalan roots. We strive to source almost all our ingredients locally and organically, while also sharing our love and knowledge on mindful eating. Reconnecting with the food we eat, recognizing the effort it takes into growing food, and respecting Pachamama.
We not only do pop-ups, but offer meal prep services (which we are currently at capacity for), custom cakes, and also private chef services.
I am known for our allergen-friendly and refined sugar-free desserts as well as our hand-pressed tacos- specifically our hibiscus tacos, La Flor.
There is not one thing that I am proud of, I believe that the whole experience of starting a business is always about growing and achieving the goals you set. Being proud of every moment and accomplishment as they come. At this current moment I’ve been happy to see more and more folks bring their reusable containers to our pop-ups encouraging everyone to reduce our waste to the Earth.
Orlando was once known for its plant-forward restaurants (Dandelion, Cafe 118, Sanctum), but after years of these places being closed it made the commercial veganism food scene grow, giving space for more restaurants that used big brand mock meats instead of making in-house made from scratch ingredients- it created a more fast-paced food scene which disconnected so many more folks on how food should be viewed.
TUME sets things apart because we brought our West Coast mentality of community, slow-eating & sustainability.
Even though we are a pop-up we serve made from scratch plant-based foods, all thanks to working with local makers and farmers. We offer donation-based plant- starts and seeds to encourage self-sustainability and believe that all should have access to good organic food. We also have our zero-waste program, which we offer discounts to folks who bring their own food and/or drink containers,
Can you share something surprising about yourself?
I never really planned on being a chef or being involved in the food industry growing up. I loved to cook when I was young but what I really loved was creating special FX make-up. I was involved in the drama club in high school and worked behind the scenes doing make-up for plays, it later evolved to doing gory special FX make-up for independent student films. I had a background in art since I was a child- being involved with painting and pottery, so special FX was a beautiful marriage of both, as well as involving realism and the human anatomy (which I also loved).
While I did end up going to culinary school I had also applied for Joe Blascos School of Makeup artistry. It was a hard choice but decided to go ahead into the new venture of culinary school and super glad I did.
I still do special FX makeup when I get the chance and also translate a lot of my techniques into the desserts I bake during the spooky season,
Contact Info:
- Website: www.cocinatume.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cocina_tume/
- Facebook: facebook.com/cocina.tume/
- Other: https://linktr.ee/cocina_tume
Image Credits
Photo of me was taken by Erica Gregory (@labadcreate) All food photos were staged and shot by me, Alli Sagastume
