As an enterprising teenager growing up in San Mateo Yucutindoo (population 2,500) in Oaxaca’s remote Sierra Sur region, Thalía Barrios García financed her first bakery by peddling goods she’d buy in bigger cities to locals. As a culinary school student, she almost got expelled for selling home-made tacos and fruit ices to classmates. Her grit and persistence paid off. In 2019, she used her savings to open a little patio restaurant, Levadura de Olla, naming it after the homemade ferments that women used to bake claypot breads in her village. Here, she…
