Friday, May 10, 2013

"He Drove Away With Her, and I Just Walked Away": Jamie Sells the Bitchen Kitchen

Posted By on Fri, May 10, 2013 at 12:45 PM

One of the first wave of food trucks is on the road out of Tucson: Chef Jamie Castro of Jamie's Bitchen Kitchen has sold her truck.

Castro, who ran Jamie's Bitchen Kitchen for nearly two years, is taking a break from the food scene for a while to take care of her mother — and frankly, because she "needed a vacation" after 25 years cooking.

"I'm just tired, I've got family matters to take care of and frankly, I didn't plan on sitting in the truck this summer," Castro said.

In this week's Noshing Around column, we noted that Castro was planning on just shutting the truck down for the summer. "That was the plan," Castro said, "but I had a number of people who were interested in the truck" — and it appears the right offer came along.

Castro posted an announcement on the truck's Facebook page yesterday, saying that the new buyer is a "happy young man [who is] taking her to Montana."

"I sold [the truck] to him yesterday. He drove away with her, and I just turned around and walked away, thinking 'I'm not going to miss it,'" Castro said. It seems, though, that the following of Tucsonans who loved her twist on Cuban food will be missing her — the Bitchen Kitchen page has had numerous well-wishes and condolences, and Castro's been taking the comments to heart.

"It's surreal how many people are upset that I'm leaving," Castro said. "I've gotten a few calls from people already asking me to do catering for them," she added, noting that she might "come back and do [that] down the line."

But for now, Castro's going to take a break.

"This summer, I'm going to take a vacation and travel up and down the coast before settling back down," she said. "It's time for the next chapter."

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