Gather around the table for Prime Corn!
May 23, 2022
Wendy Juarez is creating opportunities to bring vegans, vegetarians, and omnivores together for authentic Mexican cuisine! Wendy's small business, Prime Corn, won the top prize at this year’s New American Dream Lab, an event hosted by the International Rescue Committee (IRC) in Salt Lake City giving local refugee and immigrant entrepreneurs the chance to pitch their businesses and win a capital prize! Wendy, an entrepreneur participating in Spice Kitchen Incubator, keeps the focus of Prime Corn simple, specializing in 90% corn-based dishes, and 100% vegan and vegetarian-friendly foods. In Wendy’s words, people who eat meat have prime rib, why can’t vegetarians have prime corn?
Wendy Juarez, founder and owner of Prime Corn, is creating a new experience focused on plant-based foods derived from traditional Mexican cuisine. Photo: Mikaela Herman/IRC
Originally from Mexico, Wendy arrived to Utah 13 years ago. Growing up, she was heavily influenced by the food cooked in her home and by her family members, including tortillas, beans, and salsa. Growing up in a small town right outside of Mexico City, Wendy learned about the history of Mexican food from her family. “My heritage was my mother, grandmother, and a small farming town in Mexico,” Wendy said. “All of our food came from the field. We would use ancient practices, such as the ‘metate’ to grind our corn tortillas.” Wendy combines her experience and the heritage of her hometown to tell the story of her culture through her small business.
“My mother taught me how to make food, and now I am teaching my daughter,” said Wendy. Prime Corn is not only about selling food, it is about traditions that are passed down by her family. She now lives in Salt Lake City with her husband and two kids. Her daughter, Anna, sparked the idea for Prime Corn when she decided to try a vegetarian diet. Wendy was worried that her daughter’s diet would not be nutritious after cutting out meat, so she began researching vegetarian cuisine. Through her research, Wendy realized that much of the ancient Mexican fare was plant-based. Wendy worked to incorporate plant-based dishes into her family’s mealtime and discovered a whole new world of sustainable ingredients. She soon began experimenting with ingredients people would not expect—like squash blossoms, cactus leaves, and amaranth—with the goal of creating delicious recipes without meat.
Wendy’s journey with Spice Kitchen Incubator, a program of the IRC in Salt Lake City, began in March of 2020. Within the first week of starting the program, the world was shut down by COVID-19. This time was challenging for Wendy as she tried to start her business after getting laid off of her job, with only her life savings to rely on. In December of 2021, she launched Prime Corn proving that her ambition to succeed could overcome any obstacles in her way.
The team at Spice Kitchen Incubator supported her journey to seeing her dreams for Prime Corn come to fruition. From helping Wendy access market opportunities like Spice To Go to providing technical business assistance and identifying small business grants she was eligible to receive, Wendy worked closely with Spice Kitchen Incubator to help her business grow. Wendy was also connected to Matthew Wallace, a skilled volunteer who offers a variety of support to Spice Kitchen Incubator and other IRC programs, who set up the Prime Corn website at no charge. “Immigrants number one fear is that we will be signed off as foreigners and that people just want us to go back to our home country,” Wendy said. “The IRC is opening doors for us to show that we are people who want to grow with our community.”
For Wendy, participating in the IRC’s New American Dream Lab was transformational for her business. Not only has it given her an opportunity to share her business with a broader customer base in Salt Lake County, it has also given her the confidence she needed to move her business forward. As the winner of the pitch event, Wendy received a $4,000 business capital prize sponsored by Internet Essentials from Comcast who contributed capital prizes for all three finalists. Wendy has already invested the recently won business capital into Prime Corn, purchasing specialty equipment to help her business scale as demand for her food increases.
Wendy has ambitious goals for Prime Corn, seeing recent events as just the beginning. “I have a lot of dreams for my business. My vision is not only to be successful, but to be sustainable like my family in Mexico,” Wendy said. The farmers in her Mexican hometown discouraged the use of plastics when growing food, and Wendy will follow these practices as her business grows, eliminating the use of styrofoam and reducing the use of plastics whenever possible. Wendy also uses every part of a plant that she can to make her recipes, and the rest goes into the compost bins.
By incorporating ancient Mexican flavors in her cuisine, Wendy is bringing the pride she has for her Mexican culture to her Utah-based business. Her goal is to educate her customers by making recipes based on traditions that have been passed down for thousands of years. Built on her culture, sustainable practices, a plant-based approach, and a focus on freshness, Prime Corn is an experience customers can feel good about.
Do not miss out on trying Wendy’s delicious foods! You can find Prime Corn at upcoming Spice To Go pickups as well as at the International Food Market. You can also place your catering request with Wendy directly by visiting her website: PrimeCornFood.com. Stay up to date with all that Wendy accomplishes through Prime Corn by following her business on Facebook, Instagram and TikTok @primecornfood.
