Rising Stars: Meet Angel Trinidad of Denver

Today we’d like to introduce you to Angel Trinidad.

Hi Angel, it’s an honor to have you on the platform. Thanks for taking the time to share your story with us – to start maybe you can share some of your backstory with our readers?
My name is Angel Trinidad, I am from Chilpancingo Guerrero, Mexico.

I came to this country in 2001, like many others, in search of my dreams. In the process of making those dreams a reality I had many jobs, like housekeeping at a hotel, preping at a McDonalds, untill I became a dishwasher at a Hibachi restaurant.(Gasho of Japan)
occasionally was assigned to be a kitchen helper, and it was there I found my passion for Hibachi. (Teppanyaki)

I wanted to work in the big leagues, so I applied to Benihana, and it was there I learned the cooking technique.

One of my regular customers (Jose Rivas) now a friend and part of the Chikihanas family, gave me the idea to start a Hibachi catering business.

After 15 years of catering consistently and thanks to the business of my clients and their approval. My friend and I knew we had to take this concept to the next level.

CHIKIHANAS is what we came up with, a never seen before, Hibachi style food truck. The first ever in Denver Colorado.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
To make the concept of Hibachi on a food truck, one of the first obsacles I faced at the beginning was not being well infromed on how to properly open a food truck.

A secondary obstacle I faced in a city with over 600+ food trucks was not knowing where to be established as a food truck. In addition, finding a place that allowed a food truck to be parked for extended period of time year round was difficult..

Third but not least,the as many people know Colorado weather can change with a blink of an eye.
Cold winters and hot summers.
Our passion has given us the strength to work in all conditions.

What quality or characteristic do you feel is most important to your success?
Definitely a characterstic that is important to reaching a level of success is consistency to work 7 days a week.

Another characteristic that has helped me immensely is trying to get as close as possible to perfection, the last order has to be made just like the first one.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: Chikihanas
• Facebook: Chikihanas