Houma couple's home cooking during COVID leads to food truck and, soon, a restaurant

Colin Campo, The Courier
·4 min read
Christina Castillo and Heath Kappel of Houma work inside their food truck, Shredskiz, at the 985 Eats Food Truck Park in Gray. The couple will open a Shredskiz restaurant at 605 Barrow St. in Houma around the end of January.
Christina Castillo and Heath Kappel of Houma work inside their food truck, Shredskiz, at the 985 Eats Food Truck Park in Gray. The couple will open a Shredskiz restaurant at 605 Barrow St. in Houma around the end of January.

Christina Castillo of Houma had to quit her job during the COVID-19 pandemic to take care of her 6-year-old daughter, Zoe Randel. While home, Castillo began preparing meals for her boyfriend, Heath Kappel.

Kappel was a landscaper for the Houma-based civil-engineering firm T. Baker Smith and was sharing the meals with his coworkers. Those coworkers became the first customers of what grew into a food truck called Shredskiz.

It operates in the the 985 Eats Food Truck Park, open 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays at 302 Trinity Lane in Gray, off La. 24 northbound near U.S. 90.

The couple will open a Shredskiz restaurant at 605 Barrow St. in Houma around the end of January.

"Look at what we built together. It's crazy to think about two 26-year-olds building something like this in a little town," Castillo said. "He had a great job. I didn't have to work; he was a land surveyor. To be able to do that with somebody, you don't really find too many people that you just click with."

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Castillo said the two were surprised by their success; they grossed $119,000 their first year. The company has been so successful the couple have taken it on full-time.

"The meal-prepping thing worked because she's such a good cook," Kappel said. "I didn't know how cook; I would just put all my food in a Crock-Pot."

The name of the business was an inside joke between Castillo and Kappel. When getting fit at the gym, Castillo said, it's common to call it getting shredded, and the two would just throw "skiz" (pronounced "skeez") onto the end.

An example of a meal from Shredskiz. In the build-your-own options, a carb, veggie, and meat can be chosen. The meals can be bought single or in packs of five, 10 or 21. Meals start at $9.50 for singles and $8.50 apiece in packs.
An example of a meal from Shredskiz. In the build-your-own options, a carb, veggie, and meat can be chosen. The meals can be bought single or in packs of five, 10 or 21. Meals start at $9.50 for singles and $8.50 apiece in packs.

The focus on healthy meal prepping began when Castillo was unhappy with her weight. She said she was 215 pounds and didn't like the way it made her feel.

"Because I'm 26 and there's no reason why I can't run across the d*** yard with my kid and not be out of breath," she said. "I don't ever want her to feel like I didn't do everything in my power to make sure that I'm here for a very long time."

Now she prepares a multitude of healthy, home-cooked options that start at $9.50 for a single meal or $8.50 for a pack. Packs come in five, 10 or 21 meals at a time. Packs are lunches and dinners, but singles have breakfast options.

Meals include street tacos, turkey burgers, tamales and their hottest sellers, the bayou pasta and bayou rice. The two come topped with a reduced-fat seafood cream sauce, a grilled chicken breast, chicken sausage and a garnish of parmesan and parsley.

Asked about the bayou sauce, Castillo said that's her secret recipe and wouldn't give away any hints.

Food has always been an important part of Castillo's life, but she said she has fought a personal battle with weight for years. Growing up in Houston, she lost her father to an overdose when she was 8 years old. She said her grandmother took care of her and would give her anything she wanted. Comfort food became a staple.

Castillo said she said she was never taught proper nutritional health as a child, and by the time she was 11, she was eating boiled broccoli and chicken and sneaking her mother's diet pills.

She now reads labels, looks for low-calorie options and makes sure low-calorie doesn't mean bland. She said she loves her job because it allows her to share her passion and what she learned with others.

When she and Kappel looked into moving out of their home kitchen, they spoke with some food truck owners and were eventually contacted by Michael Lewis, owner of Big Mike's BBQ in Houma and Thibodaux, who they now rent their food truck from.

"It's the portions and the ingredients they use that add the lower calories," Lewis said. "It's really good food, it really is."

This article originally appeared on The Courier: Houma couple's home cooking during COVID leads to food truck, restaurant