Cooking was always part of Isha Rae’s life growing up in Ohio.
“The first thing I remember cooking was my mom’s mac and cheese,” Rae says. “My mom is my mentor, and she’s the one I have learned most of my cooking from. Later, my daughter’s grandmother taught me to cook Puerto Rican food.”
Rae spent the first part of her career in management and customer service. She teamed up with her mother, Char Kay Desbin, to open Rae’s Catering and Puerto Rican Food in 2020 in Boulder just as the pandemic was beginning.
“I wanted to create this business for our family to do together as a second income,” she says.
The company has catered birthday parties, festivals, events at CU, a wedding in Estes Park and many corporate meetings. They serve soul food — fried and BBQ chicken with collard greens — and authentic dishes from Puerto Rico including pastelitos, fried savory hand pies.
Her mom is now retired, but Rae is determined to keep serving.
“One Thursday a month, I serve food at the Avalon Ballroom for salsa dancing night,” she says. “I sell out every time I’m there. I take the catering jobs that are meaningful, where I’m actually contributing to our community.
“I do want my food to be here, so that anybody can access it in Boulder.”
This is part of a larger story, "Portraits in great taste," profiling women who are shaping the way we eat, drink and buy food in Boulder. Read other profiles in the series here.