Coming of Age

This article is published in partnership with The Food Section.

Manolo Betancur’s 12-year-old daughter has no idea what she wants to do for her quinceañera—and that’s not because the important milestone is still three long years away. 

It’s because the possibilities are limitless. 

“I am Colombian, her mother is Mexican, and she was born here in Charlotte, North Carolina,” Betancur explained. “That’s three different cultures. She doesn’t know if she wants to have her quinceañera in Charlotte, in Mexico, in Colombia, or if she just wants to have an American sweet 16.”  

One thing is certain: Betancur will be the one to make his daughter’s cake, just as he’s made thousands of other quinceañera cakes at Manolo’s Latin Bakery, the business he started nearly 30 years ago in Charlotte’s Central Avenue Corridor, home to immigrant food entrepreneurs from around the world. 

The cakes were simple when he started out: a few chocolate or vanilla tiers covered in buttercream and fake flowers. But the cakes pictured in Betancur’s old lookbook bear little resemblance to the Instagram screenshots that clients show him today.

“Girls who are not from newly arrived immigrant families want more modern cakes in flavors like red velvet; cakes with real flowers on top that have many layers that are naked on the sides. It’s the evolution of the quinceañera,” the baker laughed.

There is no overstating the importance of the quinceañera in Latino culture, in what it represents both to the families who scrimp and save for years to pay for the elaborate party and to the girls at the center of it, whose 15th birthdays are seen as their entrance into womanhood. 

Depending on a family’s resources, a quinceañera can be a small backyard affair or a hotel ballroom gala, but what all the celebrations have in common is food. Whether it’s birria made by a tía or chicken marsala cranked out by the venue’s kitchen, the food better be good and there better be plenty of it.

But according to caterers across North Carolina, what counts as quinceañera food is rapidly evolving—in large part because Mexican families now go back generations in the state. 

Rolling With the Young Set

Quinceañeras can be hell for caterers. Not only is there a theme, such as “secret garden” or “under the sea,” and a color scheme—just about everything has to match the girl’s dress—but budgets are often low and expectations are always high. Plus, the promised quality and plentitude of food can succumb to late start times and uninvited guests. 

On top of that, culinary norms are changing.

On the Facebook page for Winston-Salem’s La Parrilla catering company, there are multiple photographs of co-owner Gerardo Bedolla standing next to teens in elaborate quinceañera dresses, a buffet of cazuelas filled to the brim with carnitas and stacked behind them.

Bedolla, who has recently catered quinceañeras in Newton, Durham, Tobaccoville, and Greensboro, said that families tend to hire his company because they want “traditional Mexican food,” which can mean something different depending on whom you ask. 

Immigrants from southern Mexico may scoff at the idea of beef fajitas and flour tortillas being “authentic,” but for Tejanos generations deep in the Rio Grande Valley, this meal is the real deal. Tex-Mex, Cal-Mex, it’s all real Mexican food if it’s made by Mexicanos, but many would agree with Bedolla that “traditional” translates to handmade tortillas, homemade salsas, rice, beans, mole, birria, and chile verde. Frequently, there’s a taco bar in the mix, with many families favoring al pastor, the marinated pork shaved from a trompo and topped with pineapple. 

Like most caterers, Bedolla attracts clients through word of mouth, including social media posts. His obsession with standout customer service sparked his recent idea for snack carts outfitted to appeal to the tweens and teens at quinceañeras. La Parrilla recently launched a Maruchan-focused cart with customizable cups of ramen noodles that can be topped with Hot Cheetos or birria. 

Bedolla said that street snack bars or carts like his are increasingly common at quinceañeras because nothing pleases a crowd like an array of options. La Parrilla has quinceañera snack carts based around corn, others on fruit. There’s even one for tostilocos—corn chips topped with cucumber, jicama, Japanese peanuts, cueritos (or pickled pig skin), lime, and hot sauce. 

A lot of kids opt for a cup of pineapple and watermelon slathered in chamoy, a sprinkling of Tajín, and maybe a few Takis, just for good measure.

Lupita Montiel is a new arrival to the world of quinceañera food service with her business, Banquetes La Lupita, though she describes herself as a community cook rather than a professional caterer. Based outside of Durham, most of her clients are newly arrived immigrant families who hire her to make what they consider classic quinceañera fare: Mexican chicken adobo, frijoles charros, and beef barbacoa and its common companion, sopa fria, a creamy pasta salad usually dotted with corn and ham. 

Few families that Montiel has cooked for deviate from these hearty standards, but she said sometimes a quinceañera will surprise her—or in one recent case, a quinceañero. 

Nothing has illustrated changing norms for first-generation kids quite like the birthday celebration Montiel catered earlier this year for a teenage boy who was turning 15. He wanted fettuccine Alfredo, fajitas, and chicken with pineapple. While these are the kinds of dishes that banquet halls and hotel kitchens offer to families who pay for quinceañera packages, Montiel said these were surprising requests coming from an immigrant family who hired someone like her. 

“It’s very different than typical Mexican food, but I enjoy learning to cook new things,” Montiel said. “And the way I make these new foods will never be traditional. After the party, the quinceañero said everything was delicious because it had a Mexican kick.”  

Cheese Platters Don’t Cut It

Latinos have been the fastest-growing demographic in North Carolina since the 1990s and are expected to account for 14 percent of the state’s population by 2050. But they’ve long been the majority elsewhere in the country.

In California, where chef Juan Alvarez is based, more than half of the state’s under-18 population is Latino. Alvarez suspects the demographics of his location shape the quinceañera catering requests received by his business, the Bee’s Cafe++ Catering. 

Many of Alvarez’s clients are second- and third-generation Americans, no longer in survival mode like their parents and grandparents. 

“There’s a very different approach and different expectations when both of the parents of the girl were born here,” said Alvarez, who markets himself as a “farm-to-fork” caterer. “They don’t want rice, beans, and carnitas. They want something more elaborate and more Americanized, I guess is the best way to say it. They want beautiful cheese displays, fresh salads, and tri-tip steaks. They want the things you wouldn’t eat on any other day.” 

Based in Sacramento, Alvarez said his business has expanded into Nevada because his home market has become too saturated with caterers offering the same kinds of California-inspired fare. He’s currently considering a business outpost in North Carolina, perhaps somewhere in the Triad, where he hopes to face less competition for quinceañeras and other catering gigs.  

While he prefers more modern and American menus, Alvarez was born in Mexico and can make all the classic quinceañera dishes. But early in his catering career he found that making Mexican food for Mexican families was often a recipe for disaster. 

“You get a lot of critique from family members at the quinceañera because of regional differences in Mexican food or just connections that people have to certain dishes,” Alvarez explained. “You hear a lot of ‘Well, my family didn’t do it this way.’”

But toward the end of a party, when family members and friends have many hours of celebrating under their belts, a cheese platter won’t do. In Mexican culture, it’s customary to eat menudo the morning after a quinceañera to help mitigate hangovers. 

Alvarez’s riff on the tradition is a late-night snack menu, a second round of food aimed at the inebriated and hungry, as well as the teenage chambelanes and damas in the quinceañera party who’ve spent the night on the dance floor.  

“At the end of the night, after all of the dancing and drinking, all anyone wants is a taco or nachos or tostilocos, and we’re happy to accommodate that,” Alvarez said.

Alvarez even offers churros—the perfect ending to a super sweet 15. 

Tina Vasquez is a North Carolina-based movement journalist with more than 15 years of experience reporting on immigration, reproductive injustice, food, labor, and culture. Currently, she is features editor at the non-profit newsroom Prism.