By Daisy Kuenstler
A week and a day. That’s how long it took for Twisted N Tossed to go from a concept to serving its first customers.
Pamela Guizar was talking on the phone to a friend who had a brewery in Atascadero that needed a vendor. When talking about her idea for farm-to-table meals, they asked if she would start a pop-up next weekend. Guizar said, “Let’s do this.” During that week period, she got all of the proper licensing and insurance, paid all necessary fees, and was set up by that next weekend.
“When I started this I was like no. I am going to do exactly what I want. I am going to have fun with it,” Guizar said.
Guizar created Twisted N Tossed in September of 2021 and has been serving food at breweries across the San Luis Obispo area since. She runs everything by herself, from purchasing the ingredients to physically cooking the food. The majority of her food is locally sourced from farmers’ markets or local meat packaging facilities. To her, food is just another way to “bring [her] art to the table.”
Video by: Audrey Ryan
“I wanted to have those yummy foods that feed your soul, but also feed your body,” Guizar said.
After working in the food service industry as a bartender and server since her teens, she decided to attend culinary school at Le Cordon Bleu. After working for multiple restaurants and moving around California, she found herself back in San Luis Obispo.
Guizar creates all of her food from scratch, including the sauces and bases. She can cite the source of every ingredient, down to “each grain of salt.” She refers to ingredients as “earth’s gifts” that she is able to share and prepare for her customers. She makes sure that everything she creates starts off as vegan and then she builds from there, ensuring that she “can accommodate every style.”.
By creating “fast clean food,” Guizar said she is trying to put a healthy spin on traditional street food.
“Don’t get me wrong, I love a good fried chicken sandwich, I love some biscuits and gravy, I love all of the things that aren’t best for my system,” Guizar said, ut it is about having the flavor and the cleanness.”
On a recent Wednesday at Liquid Gravity Brewery, Twisted N Tossed was serving its spin on tacos. There were two options, one with jackfruit and the other with chicken. Jackfruit was her vegan option and a plant she had not worked with before. The “tunnels” of the jackfruit to suck up all of the flavors, she said. The tacos had a cheese crust on both the inside and outside of the tortilla. They are served with a salad where each piece of lettuce is meticulously placed by Guizar. All of the sauces and spices are drizzled onto the tacos and salad with extreme precision.
“The food was different than typical brewery food, but I really enjoyed it,” said customer and SLO resident McKenna Ross.” “It is nice to eat something and know the ingredients are fresh and locally sourced.”
Guizar has been able to do the Twisted N Tossed pop-ups at multiple breweries, all due to word-of-mouth.
“You can taste the love and thoughtfulness in her food, she’s just so excited to share what she’s making with the world and we feel the same way,” said Celeste Gough, Liquid Gravity‘s tasting room manager.
Guizar hopes to begin serving five-course and nine-course meals in collaboration with local wineries soon. She will create ticket-only events for customers to enjoy her food paired with wines.
“If I continue to do the right thing, all of the right things will be handed to me,” Guizar said.
