Mika Leon of Caja Caliente launches website to share recipes and more

 Caja Caliente’s Chef/Owner Mika Leon’s new website mikaleon.com is bringing her recipes to the masses.

She recalls how her culinary career began.

“I started as a blogger, before this crazy influencer craze happened,” said Leon. “It was called Mika Bites and was really me going to restaurants and reviewing them.”

That led to her eventually starting the Caja Caliente taco truck with her mother. Her Cuban-influenced tacos were a hit in Miami. The natural progression was opening a brick and mortar restaurant. It’s located in Coral Gables.

Then, March 13 happened, restaurants closed and for Mika, a bout with Coronavirus. She contracted it in March and that led to 28 days of isolating at home.

When she finally tested negative for Coronavirus her publicist suggested she start cooking live on Instagram, recreating Caja’s recipes.

Mika Leon cooking on Instagram Live. Photo by Julia Rose

“Thanks to my publicist’s expertise and contacts, we created a full studio to start my cooking live,” said Leon. “I realize now that if it wasn’t for Covid, none of this would’ve happened. I had time to step back, be home, isolated. That is what gave me time to do this.”

Stepping back for Mika definitely wasn’t easy.

“Honestly, during those 28 days I was going nuts but seeing people’s reactions and how many were following along at home, it made me so happy.”

With the IG Live’s popularity, the next natural progression was creating a website.

“That’s how the website came about and although it’s been a lot of work, but it is incredibly rewarding,” she said. “It’s nice that when people are asking for recipes they have somewhere to go.”

Caja Caliente cinnamon roll pancakes. Photo courtesy of Caja Caliente.

Currently, there are 28 recipes on the site with 10 or more being added each month. Leon is also working with a video editor to add cooking tutorials.

“Many of the recipes are items on the menu at Caja, like for example our Nutella blondies,” she said.

Mika likes that the website helps bring all her worlds together of cooking and writing. There is a blog component on the site to make it all more relatable.

“This industry is tough and being a minority is tough, so this website is about creating a platform and making people feel comfortable,” she said. “That’s always been my mission, to create a safety net where we can all come together.”

Alongside her throughout this entire journey has been her Mom, whose recipes are featured on Caja’s menu. Leon says she’s the typical Cuban mother.

“My mom and I are always screaming at each other in the kitchen and like most Cuban mothers she doesn’t measure when she cooks so I have to stop my Mom and ask her what ingredients she’s using and how much!,” said Mika. “She doesn’t even let me take pictures of her pork because she doesn’t want to give everything away.”

Their relationship and time in the kitchen are how Mika has been able to develop a Rolodex of recipes “which has always been a dream of mine. This is great for the website; I hope to have 100 recipes on the site that people can access.”

Eventually, she plans to bring her Instagram account and website together.

Treating the website as a living document, Mika plans to add a travel section as well “where visitors will see my favorite restaurants and recipes, especially from New York City which I’ve been visiting quite a bit lately.”

For the website’s lifestyle section, Mika asked people in their 20s “what they wanted to know because that’s my demographic. I want the site to be a tool to teach people about the right tools and cookware to use so I am incorporating their feedback to develop this section.”

Making the site simple and approachable was key and “although I’m very excited, I’m also nervous and hope that everyone reacts well to it.”

Visit the website at mikaleon.com and her IG account @mikabites and Caja Caliente @cajacaliente