Meet Jennifer Araujo of Peachtree City

Today we’d like to introduce you to Jennifer Araujo.

Hi Jennifer, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
Our story began in 2013, when we met working at a Soho staple in New York City named Cafe Noir. He was back of the house working as a sous chef and I was front of the house working as a bartender. One day after working a brunch shift, some friends canceled some plans and Celio took the opportunity to ask if I wanted to hang out with him and we never stopped hanging out. We bonded over our love of the restaurant industry and hospitality in general. We both had the same aspiration of one day owning our own establishment where we got create a joyful environment serving people something we created. I have always worked in the restaurant industry in some capacity. My first real job in high school was hostessing for a Cuban restaurant on the Upper West Side and I loved it. Over the years I went on to work various positions in different restaurants and even launched a catering business with my best friend. While I also held other positions throughout my life, like teaching or as community liason for an elected official, I would always fall back to a hospitality job. Whether serving, bartending or managing, it’s the only time I ever felt true satisfaction. Over a span of 20 years, I went back and forth between both worlds but my heart has always been in hospitality.
Celio graduated from The French Culinary Institute in 2009 after having served in the military for 8 years in the Marine Corps. He worked the NYC restaurant circuit as a chef in places like The Plaza, Salinas, Soho House, Cafe Fiorello’s & Madison Square Garden.
In 2016, Celio and I welcomed a baby girl. At the time, he was working at Wolfgang Puck’s CUT NYC and I was working for the Manhattan DA. Shortly after our daughter was born, Celio got the opportunity to work for celebrity chef Michael Chiarello from the Food Network. They relocated us to San Francisco to work for his restaurant Coqueta on Embarcadero as an executive sous chef. In 2019 they moved us to Napa, to oversee the construction of a new Coqueta in Yountville. By then we also welcomed our second child, a son; and while living in Napa felt like a dream, having 2 babies without family around for support and also being SO close to the California wild fires (literally had to keep a go-bag by the door), it was not sustainable for us. We ultimately decided to move to Georgia because not only did we both have family there, but it felt like a great opportunity to set down roots.
We relocated to Georgia in January of 2020. Despite Covid, Celio was able to find work as an executive sous chef right away and we settled into our new surroundings. Work was steady but the urge to do more set it. In 2021 Celio began freelancing as a consultant. He helped establishments with restaurant opening procedures, menu creation, staff training and streamlining operations. We also created a dry-hire bartending business with a mobile bar.
In 2024 we took a leap of faith and bet on ourselves. We sold our house in Suwanee and made the bold decision to move to Peachtree City with the intention of taking our business to the next level. We launched Castillo Creations GA in 2025 offering: Catering, Performance & Family Meal Prep, Private Chef Services, Paella Parties, Dry-Hire Bartending, Consulting & Event Planning.
We are passionate about what we do and the ultimate goal is to provide a memorable experience for our clients. Our food is fresh, healthy, flavorful and made with love.

Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
Starting our catering business came with a number of real challenges, both personal and operational. One of the biggest obstacles was building everything without the support system of our family nearby. The majority of our family is back in NYC and the few that live here in Georgia are 2 hours away making it difficult to manage a balanced life with our young children… it truly does take a village. Financial limitations were another major hurdle. Like many startups, we didn’t have extra capital to invest in marketing, large inventory purchases, or scaling quickly. We had to maximize every opportunity with limited resources and continue to be very intentional about every choice made because every dollar counts. The growth has been slow but our clients are happy and that’s what matters.
On top of that, we had to learn every aspect of running a business ourselves. While we are knowledgeable about food preparation and operational logistics, managing this digital era has been challenging. Many companies outsource that type of work but we need to do it ourselves and it has been quite the learning curve.
Entrepreneurship is a full-time commitment and the obstacles of balancing family life and business are an ongoing challenge. We’ve had to be resourceful and create mutually beneficial partnerships with other local businesses to sustain our progress. We also had to be diligent about holding space for our children and their needs for quality of life. Every decision has been intentional and while challenging, it has made us stronger and more resilient.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
Celio is a professionally trained chef with years of fine dining experience dating back to 2009. He specializes in Spanish cuisine and live fire cooking but has worked a variety of different concepts to include Italian, French & Modern American throughout his career. I am not a formally trained chef but as we say in this field, I have sweat equity in the game ;-). It has always been my passion to work in this industry since high school when I was old enough to work in 1998. I’ve been a hostess, barista, server, floor manager, private events manager, bartender, mixologist, event planner and finally a caterer. I’ve worked in Michelin rated restaurants and have learned a great deal along the way having had a front row seat.
Castillo Creations was born out of our love for cooking and hosting. We enjoy preparing delicious meals that wow our guests using simple, straight forward, fresh ingredients.
Our goal is to evoke an emotion through our service and food that is strong enough to stay with you.
We offer vast services to meet the needs of any type of event, from an intimate meal for two or an abundant grazing spread, to a traditional paella cooked right in your backyard. We can also provide various menu options from many different cultures to help our clients cultivate the perfect event.
In addition to the traditional catering, our focus has been on our meal prep program. We are providing Family and Performance macro focused, delivered meals that are healthy and delicious, which is quite frankly, hard to come by. We use French gray sea salt and fresh herbs to season our food creating a restaurant-quality meal that is actually nutritionally sound.
We are quality driven and most proud of how our product has been so well received. Everytime our clients are wowed by our level of service, it reaffirms that all the sacrifice was worth it and we are truly living in our purpose.

Any advice for finding a mentor or networking in general?
Creating a network of like minded people is a great tool. They don’t have to be in the same industry, but they have to as equally driven. Our network of entrepreneurs ranges from mortgage brokers, to graphic designers, to martial arts instructors. The variety of people is what has really helped us excel. We are open to conversations with anyone because you never know when inspiration will hit or what meaningful connections you can make.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.CastilloCreationsGA.com
• Instagram: @CastilloCreationsLLC
• Facebook: @CastilloCreations